Sheldon 


THE  HIGH  CALLING 


OF  CALIF.  LIBRABY,  LOS 


THE 
HIGH   CALLING 


BY 

CHARLES  M.  SHELDON 

AUTHOR  OF  "IN  HIS  STEPS."  ETC. 


HODDER  &   STOUGHTON 

NEW  YORK 
GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


Copyright,  1911, 
By  George  H.  Doran  Company 


TO  MY  SON 

MERRIAM  WARD 


FOREWORD 

The  story,  "  The  High  Calling,"  was  written  at 
two  different  periods,  in  1909  and  1910,  and  was  read 
at  two  different  periods,  chapter  by  chapter,  to  the 
young  people  in  my  church,  on  successive  Sunday 
evenings.  The  main  purpose  of  the  story  is  to  il- 
lustrate the  value  of  the  average  American  family 
training  and  the  final  victory  of  the  spiritual  ideals 
over  material  or  physical  attractions.  The  final 
outcome  of  the  struggle  which  Helen  Douglas  makes 
between  her  natural  inclination  to  follow  a  life  of 
ease  and  luxury,  and  the  real  training  which  she  has 
received  at  home,  is  the  picture  of  what  is  going  on 
in  the  best  American  homes  to-day.  It  has  been  my 
hope  that  the  story  would  help  many  young  people 
to  realize  the  great  difference  between  the  finest  type 
of  manhood  and  womanhood,  and  that  which  in  some 
cases  has  grown  up  on  American  soil,  where  the 
standards  have  been  low  and  the  ideals  have  been 
obscured  by  fashion,  by  false  home  training,  and  by 
superficial  ideas  of  happiness.  In  other  words,  my 
purpose  has  been  to  describe,  in  the  main  characters 
in  the  book,  the  manly  heroic  type  of  Christian 
struggle  and  final  victory  which  realizes  the  response 
which  the  higher  nature  makes  to  the  call  from  above. 
This  idea  which  runs  through  the  story  gives  it  its 
name  of  "  The  High  Calling."  As  my  own  young 

7 


8  FOREWORD 

people  gave  the  story  a  beautiful  reception  in  their 
listening  to  it,  it  is  my  earnest  hope  that  if  the  book 
has  the  good  fortune  to  find  a  larger  audience  it 
may  reach  more  young  people  with  the  same  mes- 
sage. 

Topeka,  Kansas,  1911.       CHARLES  M.  SHELDON. 


THE  HIGH  CALLING 


CHAPTER    I 

PAUL  DOUGLAS  and  his  wife,  Esther,  were 
holding  a  serious  council  together  over  their 
older  boy,  Walter. 

"  I  can't  help  feeling  a  little  disappointment  over 
the  way  things  are  going.  I  did  so  want  the  boy 
to  come  into  the  office  with  me." 

"  I  know,"  said  Esther,  with  a  grave  smile,  "  but 
he  seems  to  have  his  mind  made  up.  I  don't  think 
we  ought  to  thwart  him  if  he  is  made  to  do  that  for 
his  lifework." 

"  No,"  said  Paul,  looking  at  Esther  with  great 
thoughtfulness,  "  I  have  always  believed  that  a  boy 
should  have  freedom  to  choose  his  lifework.  But 
what  puzzles  me  is  where  did  Walter  get  his  leaning 
toward  electrical  engineering?  None  of  my  ances- 
tors, so  far  as  I  know,  ever  had  the  slightest  tendency 
that  way,  and  the  Darcys  for  generations  have  been 
business  men. 

"  I  was  in  the  boy's  room  the  other  day,"  contin- 
ued Paul,  meditatively,  "  and  he  had  the  floor  and 
his  bed  and  the  chairs  covered  with  models  of  elec- 
trical machines.  I  was  afraid  to  sit  down  or  lean 

9 


10  THE   HIGH   CALLING 

up  against  anything  for  fear  it  would  go  off  and 
give  me  a  shock  or  something.  While  I  was  asking 
questions,  what  did  the  boy  do  but  start  a  contri- 
vance that  hung  from  the  ceiling  and  it  reached 
down  a  metallic  arm  that  grabbed  my  hat  off  and 
began  to  comb  my  hair.  I  yelled,  naturally,  or  un- 
naturally, and  tried  to  get  loose,  but  another  con- 
trivance shot  out  from  the  wall  somewhere  and 
clutched  me  by  the  leg  and  began  to  make  frantic 
gestures  at  my  shoes  like  a  wild  boot-blacking  em- 
porium. I  decided  to  stand  still  rather  than  run 
the  risk  of  getting  hit  somewhere  else.  Meanwhile 
Walter  was  laughing  so  hard  he  couldn't  answer  my 
emphatic  request  to  know  what  the  thing  was  going 
to  do.  He  finally  explained  that  it  was  a  new  device 
he  was  experimenting  with  to  give  the  patient 
head  treatment  for  nervous  prostration,  and  black 
his  shoes  while  he  waited.  I  made  him  turn  off  the 
power  and  then  I  cautiously  backed  out  of  the  room 
and  gave  him  my  testimonial  on  the  efficacy  of  his 
invention  adapted  to  give  anyone  nervous  pros- 
tration and  general  paralysis  who  never  had 
them." 

Esther  laughed,  the  same  good,  generous,  con- 
tagious laugh  she  had  always  known,  and  Paul  had 
always  loved  to  hear. 

"  Walter  is  a  genius.  I  always  said  he  would  make 
his  mark." 

"  I  was  afraid  he  would  make  several  on  me  before 
I  could  get  away,"  said  Paul,  smiling.  "  Well,  of 
course,  we  have  really  decided  to  let  the  boy  go  to 
Burrton.  If  he  is  going  to  have  a  thorough  course 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  11 

in  electricity,  I  want  him  to  have  the  best  there 
is." 

"  I  shall  miss  him  dreadfully.  O,  dear,  my  dar- 
ling !  "  Esther  suddenly  yielded  to  a  good  cry  that 
somewhat  upset  Paul.  Only  once  in  a  while  in  their 
married  life  had  Esther  given  way  to  such  a  display 
of  feeling.  But  before  Paul  went  down  to  the  of- 
fice that  morning  she  had  dried  her  tears  and  with  a 
hopeful  smile  prepared  to  make  out  a  list  of  Walter's 
school  necessities  for  the  eight  months  he  would  be 
away  from  home. 

Walter  was  twenty  years  old,  tall  and  slim,  with 
his  father's  features  and  his  mother's  voice,  and  a 
very  strong  liking  for  all  scientific  and  mechanical 
work.  He  had  within  the  year  graduated  from  the 
Milton  high  school  with  honors  in  the  physics  de- 
partment, and  had  at  once  set  his  ambition  on  go- 
ing to  Burrton  Electrical  and  Engineering  School, 
the  best  school  of  its  kind  in  the  East.  His  father 
had  made  him  a  tempting  offer  to  come  into  the  News 
office,  but  the  boy  had  frankly  told  his  father  that 
if  there  was  anything  in  the  world  he  disliked  it  was 
a  newspaper.  So  Paul,  with  a  sigh  of  disappoint- 
ment, had  yielded  to  the  inevitable  and  agreed  to 
the  Burrton  plan,  simply  stipulating  that  Walter, 
who  was  disposed  to  be  luxurious  in  his  tastes,  should 
make  up  his  mind  to  a  school  course  stripped  of  un- 
necessary expenses  and  devoted  to  the  main  thing. 

"  I  am  willing,  of  course,  to  help  you  with  your 
education,"  he  said,  in  a  very  plain,  frank  talk  with 
Walter  when  the  decision  was  finally  made.  "  But  I 
expect  you  to  do  something  for  yourself.  The  Burr- 


IS  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

ton  catalogue  mentions  stewardships  which  students 
are  allowed  to  choose  in  part  payment  of  tuition. 
Isn't  that  so?" 

Walter  looked  annoyed  and  answered  his  father 
sullenly. 

"  Yes,  but  the  stewards  at  Burrton  have  to  wash 
dishes  and  mess  around  the  clubhouses  doing  odd 
jobs  for  the  other  fellows.  It  cuts  them  out  of 
pretty  much  all  the  best  social  life  of  the  school." 

Paul  looked  at  his  oldest  boy  indignantly.  If 
there  was  anything  he  ever  feared  it  was  that  his 
children  would  grow  up  to  despise  manual  labor  and 
shrink  from  it. 

"  Do  you  mean  to  say  you  are  not  willing  to  do 
your  honest  part  at  honest  work  to  get  through 
school?  Or  do  you  mean  to  say,  Walter,  that  the 
social  part  of  the  school  is  so  important  that  you 
are  going  to  make  it  count  in  your  program  for  an 
education?  " 

"  No."  Walter  looked  anxious  and  his  tone  was 
changed.  "  I — well — I  naturally  don't  want  to  be 
rated  in  a  class  below  the  rest — I " 

"  Do  you  mean  that  the  stewards  at  Burrton  are 
looked  down  on  for  doing  physical  work?  I  under- 
stood you  to  say  that  Jack  Alwin  said  every  fellow 
at  Burrton  stood  on  his  merits,  and  that  real  scholar- 
ship really  counted.  If  I  thought  there  was  a  spirit 
of  toadyism  or  aristocracy  at  Burrton,  I  wouldn't 
let  you  go  there." 

"  They  are  measured  by  scholarship,"  said  Wal- 
ter, in  alarm  now,  lest  his  father  would  decide  to 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  13 

withdraw  his  consent  to  the  Burrton  plan.  "  But, 
of  course,  if  I  go  in  with  the  stewards  I  can't  expect 
to  go  out  much,  or — but  I'm  willing  to  apply  for  a 
place,  father,  I  want  to  go.  Don't  change  the  plan, 
will  you?  " 

"I  want  you  to  go,  Walter.  But  I  don't  want 
you  ever  to  think  that  the  work  of  your  hand  is  any 
less  honorable  than  the  work  of  your  head.  What 
little  you  do  won't  hurt  you  at  all.  And  it  makes 
no  difference  what  others  think.  If  you  go  to  Burr- 
ton,  you  go  to  get  an  education.  And  perhaps  one 
of  the  best  parts  of  it  will  be  in  the  training  you  re- 
ceive outside  of  the  classroom." 

So  Walter's  ambition,  so  far  as  his  school  was 
concerned,  was  finally  met,  though  secretly  he 
chafed  at  the  conditions  imposed  by  his  father,  and 
when  the  day  came  for  him  to  say  good-bye  and  start 
on  his  journey  of  fifteen  hundred  miles  he  was  not 
as  happy  as  he  should  have  been,  anticipating  his 
position  in  the  school  and  feeling  restless  over  the 
task  it  imposed.  At  the  same  time  he  was  so  eager 
to  get  on  with  his  engineering  that  he  would  endure 
many  hard  and  disagreeable  experiences.  Paul  and 
Esther  took  leave  of  him  at  the  station  with  a  feel- 
ing, which  they  kept  from  being  too  sad  on  the  boy's 
account,  that  he  was  going  to  face  a  new  world  and 
meet  some  overturning  events  in  the  course  of  the 
school  year. 

Helen  Douglas,  their  second  child,  was  eighteen, 
just  entering  Hope  College,  and  beginning  to  face 
some  questions  that  gave  Paul  and  Esther  much 


14  THE    HIGH   CALLING 

thought.  She  was  a  girl  blessed  with  her  mother's 
vigorous  health,  so  overflowing  with  vitality  that 
her  mother  said  to  her  one  day,  "  Helen,  if  you  feel 
so  strong  and  outbreaking,  I  don't  know  but  I  will 
let  Jane  go  and  put  you  in  the  kitchen." 

"  That's  all  right,  mother,"  replied  Helen,  calmly. 
"  You  know  I  am  going  to  be  a  professor  of  domes- 
tic science  and  I  would  just  as  soon  practice  on  you 
and  father  and  the  boys  as  anybody.  But  I  feel 
so  well  all  the  time  I  believe  I  would  like  to  join  a 
circus." 

"  Helen  Douglas ! "  Esther  said,  shocked  at  her 
daughter's  remark.  And  then  she  thanked  God  for 
the  girl's  abounding  life.  "  There  are  so  many 
sickly  girls  and  women,  Helen,  you  cannot  be  thank- 
ful enough  for  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  all  things, 
health." 

"  I  am  thankful,  mother.  You  know  I  never  even 
had  a  headache.  Isn't  it  fine  to  be  so  well  that  you 
don't  know  what  to  do  ?  " 

Mrs.  Douglas,  however,  had  some  serious  thoughts 
of  Helen,  and  at  times  she  was  anticipating  possible 
sorrow  for  this  creature  with  the  strength  and  grace 
of  some  forest  animal.  Helen  was  careless  and 
thoughtless  in  many  ways,  selfish  and  arbitrary  in 
the  home  circle,  although  in  many  cases  she  was 
quickly  penitent  and  ready  to  acknowledge  her 
faults.  She  was  inclined  to  be  very  critical  and 
openly  judged  everyone,  from  the  minister  to  her 
own  father  and  mother.  She  was  constantly  call- 
ing Louis  to  account  for  his  failings,  and  one  of  Mrs. 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  15 

Douglas's  daily  crosses  was  due  to  the  habit  Helen 
had  of  provoking  Louis,  partly  in  a  spirit  of  banter, 
partly  because  Louis  offended  the  girl's  nice  feelings 
about  certain  customs  and  courtesies  in  polite  soci- 
ety. There  were  great  possibilities  in  Helen  for 
a  rich  and  rare  womanhood,  but  many  a  hard  fight 
ahead  for  her  in  the  overcoming,  and  many  humilia- 
tions perhaps  for  her  sensitive  soul  before  she 
reached  the  place  of  victory. 

Louis  was  fifteen,  just  entered  high  school,  a  little 
backward  with  his  studies  on  account  of  trouble  with 
his  eyes  and  a  nervous  attack  which  left  him  some- 
what irritable  and  timid.  He  was  an  average  boy, 
a  great  lover  of  his  mother  and  a  hero-worshipper 
toward  his  father.  He  was  a  handsome-looking  boy 
who  bade  fair  to  develop  into  a  business  career  of 
some  sort,  but  with  doubtful  habits  which  would  be 
settled  one  way  or  another  as  his  nervous  physical 
condition  improved  or  grew  worse.  Paul  watched 
him  closely  and  counselled  much  with  Esther  over 
Louis,  realising  more  as  the  boy  grew  that  his  case 
was  one  which  called  for  much  wisdom  and  care. 

Two  months  after  Walter's  departure  his  father 
received  a  letter  from  him  which  he  read  aloud  to 
Esther  in  the  family  circle.  It  was  Paul's  custom 
to  take  the  whole  family  into  his  confidence  in  all 
matters  that  belonged  to  all,  and  the  habit  was  one 
that  strengthened  the  ties  of  comradeship  among 
them. 

"  Dear  father  and  mother  and  all,"  Walter  wrote, 


16  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

using  a  phrase  common  to  the  Douglas  children 
whenever  they  had  been  away  from  home.  "  I'm 
having  the  time  of  my  life  at  Burrton  and  thought 
you  might  like  to  hear  about  it. 

"  There  are  about  five  hundred  in  the  school  and 
some  pretty  fine  fellows.  They  come  from  fifteen 
different  States  and  of  course  I  haven't  met  many 
of  them  yet  and  don't  expect  to  for  some  time. 

"  I  can't  say  that  I  like  the  steward  business.  I 
have  to  wait  on  the  swells  at  one  of  the  fraternity 
houses  and  I  don't  like  it.  Father,  I  wish  you  would 
let  me  do  something  else  for  my  expenses.  I  can't 
complain  of  any  treatment  of  the  fellows.  They  are 
all  civil  enough,  but  I  can't  help  feeling  the  differ- 
ence between  us.  You  see  some  of  the  fellows  come 
from  swell  families  in  New  York  and  Pittsburg  and 
Philadelphia.  Six  of  the  tables  waited  on  have 
suites  at  the  club  house  that  beat  anything  I  ever 
saw.  Their  furniture  is  hand  carved  and  one  of 
the  fellows  has  paintings  in  his  room  that  cost  ten 
thousand  dollars.  Half  the  upper  classmen  keep; 
automobiles  and  dog  kennels  and  spend  a  lot  of  money 
on  wine  suppers  and  spreads.  You  can  see  for  your- 
self that  I'm  not  in  the  same  class  with  these  fellows, 
but  it  must  be  fine  to  have  money  and  not  have  to 
scheme  how  to  get  on. 

"As  for  the  work,  I  enjoy;  the  plant  all  right. 
There  isn't  anything  like  this  equipment  anywhere 
else.  Lots  of  the  fellows  are  here  to  fit  themselves 
for  work  on  the  Isthmus.  A  good  many  of  them  are 
going  to  fail  out  on  the  finals.  For  all  it's  a  rich 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  17 

man's  son's  school  it's  only  fair  to  say  the  standard 
is  kept  up  and  I  am  told  that  over  fifty  failed  to  get 
through  last  half.  I  have  been  fortunate  enough 
to  get  a  position  under  the  assistant  foreman  in  the 
coil  shop  and  he  has  been  kind  enough  to  say  that 
if  I  keep  on  as  I  have  begun  I  may  have  a  place  in 
the  new  experiment  division  just  planned  under  Wal- 
lace, the  government  expert  recently  sent  here.  If 
I  can  get  this  position  it  will  carry  a  scholarship 
and  in  that  case  I  suppose  you  will  not  object  to  my 
dropping  the  stewardship.  It  takes  an  awful  lot 
of  time  and  I  don't  like  it  a  little  bit. 

"  There  is  fine  boating  here  on  the  Wild  River  and 
we  have  a  great  crew  this  season.  We  row  against 
Brainerd  Technology  School  three  months  from 
now.  Nothing  else  is  talked  about  just  now.  There 
isn't  much  doubt  about  our  winning.  Everyone 
knows  that  Carlisle,  our  stroke,  is  the  strongest  man 
that  ever  sat  in  a  Burrton  boat  and  we  have  never 
had  such  a  crew  for  team  work  since  the  big  race  in 
1891.  There  is  lots  of  betting  on  the  game  and  the 
odds  are  four  to  one  on  Burrton. 

"  Now  father,  you  won't  ob j  ect,  will  you,  to  my 
dropping  the  steward  work  if  I  get  the  Wallace  ap- 
pointment. I  have  almost  no  time  for  anything 
now  but  digging.  I  don't  care  to  be  known  just  as 
a  *  dig,'  but  that  is  all  I  am  so  far.  The  scholar- 
ship will  pay  me  twice  as  much  as  the  work  I'm  doing 
now  and  give  me  leisure  for  something  besides  dig- 
ging. I  haven't  had  time  to  be  homesick,  but  I 
would  give  a  lot  to  see  you  all. 


18  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

"  With  much  love  from  the  constant  '  digger.' 

"  WALTER  DOUGLAS." 

Paul's  reply  to  this  was  brief,  and  characteristic 
of  his  insight  where  Walter  was  concerned.  After 
assuring  him  that  he  had  no  objections  to  his  leav- 
ing the  stewardship  in  case  the  scholarship  was  open 
to  him,  he  wrote: 

"  I  notice  you  speak  several  times  with  more  or 
less  disparagement  of  the  fact  that  you  are  getting 
to  be  a  '  dig.' 

"  I  understand  by  this  word  is  meant  that  the 
student  is  actually  applying  himself  with  unusual 
enthusiasm  or  persistence  in  his  studies.  I  also 
understand  that  it  is  in  some  schools  a  term  of  re- 
proach and  that  a  '  dig '  is  regarded  as  a  slow  fel- 
low who  has  made  the  mistake  of  supposing  a  college 
is  a  place  where  scholarships  may  be  acquired. 

"  Now,  I  don't  want  you  to  miss  the  social  side  of 
college  life  and  all  the  jolly  things  that  rightly  be- 
long to  it.  But  if  it  comes  to  a  choice  between  being 
a  *  dig '  and  being  a  '  j  oily  fellow '  in  college,  you 
need  never  hesitate  concerning  which  one  of  these 
two  we  want  you  to  be.  The  main  object  of  a  col- 
lege course  is  an  all-around  manhood  and  a  fitting 
of  yourself  for  the  best  possible  service  in  the  world. 
The  world  does  not  need  jolly  good  fellows  so  much 
as  it  needs  persons  who  know  how  to  do  things,  and 
do  them  right,  and  do  them  when  they  are  most 
needed.  Wine  suppers  don't  add  anything  to  the 


THE    HIGH   CALLING  19 

happiness  or  well-being  of  the  world.  And  I  hope 
you  will  live  to  see  the  time,  if  I  don't,  when  the 
American  college  will  cease  to  be  a  soft  retreat  for 
rich  men's  sons  and  be  a  real  training  school  for 
service.  Service  is  the  great  word,  my  boy.  No 
man  is  truly  educated  who  does  not  have  that  word 
at  the  center  of  both  his  heart  and  his  head. 

"  I  inclose  a  check  for  a  hundred  dollars  and  leave 
it  to  your  judgment  as  to  its  use.  I  want  you  to 
have  all  that  rightfully  goes  with  the  college  course, 
and  I  hope  you  can  get  the  scholarship  if  that  will 
mean  for  you  more  leisure  for  all-around  develop- 
ment. But  I  don't  think  the  work  you  have  done  so 
far  has  hurt  you  any. 

"  All  send  love ;  your  father, 

"  PAUL  DOUGLAS." 

Esther  felt  relieved  to  know  Paul  had  sent  Walter 
some  money.  She  had  feared  the  boy  was  working 
too  hard. 

"Not  a  bit,"  said  Paul,  stoutly.  "The  boys 
that  work  their  way  through  are  not  hurt  by  it. 
Walter  is  perfectly  well  and  strong.  He  is  able  to 
stand  it." 

"  His  tastes  are  very  refined,"  murmured  Esther. 
"  I  can  understand  how  he  feels  about  waiting  on 
the  table." 

"  Waiting  on  the  table  is  a  great  business,"  said 
Paul.  "  What  would  happen  to  the  old  world  if 
everybody  now  waiting  on  tables  should  refuse  to  do 
it  any  more?  It  would  disarrange  our  civilisation 


20  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

more  than  a  universal  war.  There  is  nothing  finer 
or  more  needed  than  waiting  on  tables." 

But  there  was  one  phrase  in  Walter's  letter  that 
Paul  dwelt  over  after  he  had  gone  back  to  the  office. 
Walter  had  written  of  the  luxury  in  the  rooms  of 
the  rich  fellows,  evidently  with  some  spirit  of  envy, 
and  closed  his  brief  comment  by  saying: 

"  You  can  see  for  yourself  I  am  not  in  the  same 
class  with  these  fellows,  but  it  must  be  fine 
to  have  money  and  not  have  to  scheme  how  to  get 
on." 

Paul  had  a  perfect  horror  of  money-loving,  of 
soft  and  toadying  habits,  of  the  worship  of  style  and 
society,  and  nonsense  of  high  life  generally.  Noth- 
ing cut  him  deeper  at  heart  than  the  feeling,  as 
Walter  grew  up,  that  the  boy  had  a  streak  in  his 
character  somewhere  of  the  very  thing  that  his 
father  detested.  It  was  this  knowledge  of  a  weak- 
ness in  Walter  that  led  to  Paul's  great  desire  to  give 
the  boy  another  standard,  to  impress  on  him  the 
nobility  of  labor  and  the  disgrace  of  getting  some- 
thing for  nothing.  The  one  thing  so  far  that  was 
saving  Walter  from  becoming  a  victim  to  his  luxu- 
rious tastes  was  his  real  love  of  scientific  knowledge 
and  his  desire  to  make  of  himself  a  first-class  engi- 
neer. Paul  counted  on  this  factor  to  keep  Walter 
steady  to  the  main  thing,  but  he  realised  as  he  read 
the  boy's  letter  that  there  were  influences  in  the 
Burrton  school  powerfully  pulling  him  in  other  di- 
rections, away  from  the  simple  and  plain  habits  he 
had  always  known  at  home. 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  21 

Walter's  next  letter  acknowledged  with  much  evi- 
dent gratitude  the  receiving  of  the  money  his  father 
had  sent  and  spoke  again  of  the  scholarship  open- 
ing. That  matter,  however,  would  not  be  settled 
until  a  trying  out  of  several  applicants  for  the 
honour. 

Two  months  later  Paul  received  a  short  letter 
from  Walter,  written  evidently  in  some  bitterness, 
saying  the  scholarship  had  been  finally  given  to  an 
upper  class  man,  "  one  with  a  pull,"  Walter  de- 
clared, adding,  "  I  shall  have  to  keep  at  the  steward 
business,  I  suppose.  I  can't  make  much  more  than 
my  board  at  it,  father,  and  the  midterm  tuition  is 
due  in  two  weeks.  I  haven't  money  enough  to  settle. 
My  laboratory  fees  have  been  doubled  since  Wallace 
came  in  with  his  expert  division  work  and  expenses 
generally  are  heavy." 

Paul  replied  by  sending  Walter  another  check  and 
writing  as  encouragingly  to  him  as  possible.  Wal- 
ter answered  briefly  and  seemed  to  be  feeling  some- 
what more  reconciled  to  the  disappointment  con- 
nected with  the  scholarship  matter. 

Two  weeks  later  Paul  had  a  letter  from  the  pub- 
lisher of  one  of  his  books,  asking  him  to  come  East 
on  business  relating  to  the  book.  He  decided 
hastily  to  go  on  and  found  he  could  visit  Burrton 
school  on  the  way.  He  wrote  Walter  of  his  intention, 
giving  him  the  date  of  the  day  he  should  probably 
reach  Burrton.  Esther,  Helen,  and  Louis  seat 
many  special  messages  and  Paul  was  glad  of  an  op- 
portunity to  see  Walter  in  his  school  surroundings. 


22  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

When  he  reached  Burrton  it  happened  to  be  the 
date  of  the  great  boat  race  with  the  Brainerd 
Technology  School.  For  several  stations  before  the 
train  reached  Burrton,  crowds  came  aboard  for  the 
college  town.  When  Paul  reached  Burrton  an  im- 
mense and  yelling  mob  filled  the  station  and  swarmed 
out  to  the  racing  course  at  the  meadows,  below  the 
school  grounds. 

Walter  was  watching  for  his  father,  and  in  the 
excitement  at  the  time  Paul  did  not  note  what  he 
afterward  could  not  help  marking.  When  the  two 
were  finally  seated  on  the  great  bank  of  seats  at  the 
end  of  the  river  course,  just  before  the  crews  were 
given  the  signal  to  start,  Paul  thought  to  himself 
he  had  never  seen  Walter  so  nervous  or  so  ill  at 
ease.  He  attributed  it  all  at  first  to  the  general 
excitement,  but  the  more  he  looked  at  Walter  and 
the  more  he  watched  his  actions,  the  less  he  could 
account  for  them,  even  making  allowance  for  all  the 
unusual  outbursts  of  hilarious  feeling  on  the  part  of 
two  great  schools  met  in  rivalry. 

"  I  never  thought  about  the  date  of  the  boat  race, 
Walter,  when  I  left  home.  I'll  be  glad  to  see  it.  I 
haven't  seen  a  boat  race  since  the  Harvard- Yale  con- 
test in  ninety-three." 

"  It's  going  to  be  a  great  race,  father.  We're 
sure  to  win,  don't  you  think?  Carlisle  is  a  power. 
We  can't  lose,  can  we  ?  " 

"  You  know  more  about  it  than  I  do,  of  course." 

"  But  they  say  Brainerd  has  a  great  crew.  I 
don't  believe  they  can  beat  us,  though,  do  you?  " 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  23 

"  I  don't  know  a  thing  about  it,  Walter.  Natur- 
ally, I'll  jell  for  Burrton  with  you." 

"  We'll  win,  I  think.     Yes,  I'm  sure  we  will." 

Walter  grew  more  and  more  nervous  as  the  time 
slipped  away  and  the  signal  was  hoisted  up  the  river 
that  in  five  minutes  the  race  would  be  on.  His 
father  looked  at  him  curiously,  conscious  that  the 
boy  was  unduly  excited  over  something  more  than 
the  race. 

But  when  the  signal  went  up,  Douglas  was  ab- 
sorbed with  all  the  rest  of  the  howling,  jumping, 
gesticulating  crowd  of  undergraduates. 

A  gun  went  off  up  the  river.  The  white  smoke 
puff  rose  gracefully  above  the  trees  on  the  bank. 
The  course  was  a  straight-away  three  miles.  Two 
thin  black  streaks  side  by  side  on  the  water  began 
to  move  toward  the  red  and  green  goal  posts,  and 
the  great  race  was  on.  The  minute  the  starting 
gun  was  fired,  Paul  saw  Walter  lean  forward  and  put 
his  face  in  his  hands.  He  then  lifted  his  head,  put 
both  hands  on  the  rail  of  the  seat  in  front  of  him, 
and  gazed  up  the  river  with  a  look  so  intense  that 
even  the  faces  about  him  by  contrast  were  calm. 
Paul  found  himself  looking  oftener  at  Walter  than 
at  the  race.  From  where  they  sat  it  was  impossible 
to  tell  which  crew  was  in  the  lead.  The  black 
streaks  up  the  river  grew  more  distinct  and  another 
gun  fired  sent  the  news  along  the  course  that  the 
first  mile  of  the  race  had  been  covered,  with  Burrton 
slightly  in  the  lead. 


CHAPTER   H 

WHEN  the  gun  marked  the  second  mile  of  the 
race  there  was  not  a  quarter  of  a  boat's 
length  distance  between  Burrton  and  Brainerd,  but 
Burrton  was  leading.  By  a  system  of  flag  signals, 
the  spectators  on  the  grandstand  at  the  end  of  the 
course  were  informed  of  the  relative  situation  of  the 
two  crews  at  every  quarter  mile.  Both  crews  were 
apparently  in  good  condition  and  rowing  in  splendid 
form.  The  last  mile  was  always  the  hardest  fought. 
As  the  boats  began  to  enter  the  last  quarter  of  this 
mile,  the  excitement  rose  to  the  highest  pitch.  First 
Burrton  made  a  spurt  that  put  them  a  boat's  length 
ahead  of  their  rivals.  Then  Brainerd  responded  to 
its  coxswain's  call  and  closed  up  the  gap,  gradually 
lapping  its  bow  past  the  stern  of  the  Burrton  shell. 
Then  Burrton  drew  away  again  for  half  a  boat's 
length.  Brainerd  doggedly  clung  to  that  position 
for  a  short  distance  and  then  began  slowly  to  fall 
behind,  as  the  boats  shot  into  the  last  eighth  of  the 
mile.  Only  a  hundred  yards  now,  and  the  race  was 
won  for  Burrton.  Pandemonium  reigned  on  the 
seats  at  the  goal  post  end  of  the  course.  Shouts  of 
"  Carlisle !  Carlisle ! "  rose  up  through  the  din  of 
megaphones  and  screech  of  whistles  from  the 
launches.  Paul  looked  at  Walter.  The  boy  had 

24 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  25 

risen,  flung  his  hat  up  anywhere  and  was  waving  his 
arms  like  a  maniac,  screaming  out  the  name  of 
Carlisle,  the  crack  stroke  of  Burrton.  And  then, 
without  a  second's  warning,  the  big  stroke,  the  hero 
of  the  Burrton  crew,  whose  name  was  on  a  thousand 
tongues,  suddenly  bent  forward  and  collapsed  over 
his  oar.  The  oar  itself  crashed  into  the  line  and 
the  Burrton  boat  lurched  over  on  the  opposite 
side. 

"  Row  on,  row  on ! "  screamed  the  Burrton  cox- 
swain. "  Only  ten  yards  to  the  green  and  red 
post." 

But  Brainerd  shot  by  grimly,  her  bow  slipped  past 
the  crippled  shell  and  across  the  line,  a  winner  by 
more  than  a  length,  and  the  race  was  over. 

For  the  first  few  seconds  the  Burrton  crowd  did 
not  realise  what  had  happened.  The  Burrton's 
shell  swung  up  sideways  to  the  referee's  boat  and  the 
crew  sat  sullenly  stooping  over  their  oars.  Carlisle 
lay  in  a  huddled  heap,  a  sorry  spectacle  for  a  school 
hero,  while  the  coxswain  scooped  up  handfuls  of 
water  and  flung  them  over  him. 

Then  a  hubbub  of  questions  rent  the  air. 

"How  did  it  happen?" 

"Are  we  really  beaten?" 

"Did  Brainerd  foul?" 

"Was  Carlisle  doped?" 

"  What  was  it?     Half  a  length?  " 

"  Ours  by  a  fluke." 

"Who  was  to  blame?" 

Added  to  all  the  rest,  Paul  was  smitten  with  the 


26  THE    HIGH   CALLING 

torrent  of  profanity  that  burst  from  scores  of  Burr- 
ton  men  as  the  truth  that  they  were  beaten  began  to 
come  forcibly  home  to  them.  Paul  had  lived  long 
enough  to  know  that  the  passion  of  gambling  always 
rouses  the  worst  exhibitions  of  human  selfishness. 
But  it  was  a  new  revelation  to  him  to  see  these 
smartly  dressed  rich  men's  sons  cursing  God  and 
profaning  the  name  of  Christ  because  they  had  bet 
heavily  on  their  boat  crew  and  lost.  In  the  midst 
of  all  their  oaths  the  name  of  Carlisle  came  in  for 
heavy  scoring.  From  the  heights  of  the  most 
extravagant  hero-worship  he  had  suddenly  tumbled 
into  this  cesspool  of  profane  unpopularity.  All  of 
which  goes  to  prove  any  number  of  useful  things, 
among  them  the  necessity,  if  you  are  going  to  be 
stroke  oar  of  a  boat  crew,  it  is  best  if  you  would 
retain  your  popularity  to  keep  in  training  until  the 
season  is  over,  and  even  then  it  is  not  certain  that 
you  will  always  escape  the  other  extreme  of  being 
overtrained. 

But  Paul's  attention  was  speedily  directed  to 
Walter.  The  boy  looked  perfectly  dazed  as  the 
final  result  of  the  race  broke  upon  him.  After  two 
or  three  eager  questions  put  wildly  to  those  nearest 
him,  he  had  sunk  upon  the  seat,  and  when  his  father 
spoke  to  him  he  did  not  at  first  seem  to  hear.  Then 
he  roused  up  and  slowly  went  down  off  the  stand  and 
walked  along  by  his  father  like  one  going  to  execu- 
tion. 

It  was  a  characteristic  of  Paul  Douglas  to  go 
straight  at  a  difficulty  or  a  question  and  make  a 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  27 

frank  and  honest  attempt  to  clear  away  all  mystery 
and  trouble. 

He  saw  plainly  that  some  unusual  thing  was  agitat- 
ing Walter.  The  boy  was  under  some  great  stress 
of  feeling  and  could  not  conceal  it. 

So  when  the  two  were  back  in  Walter's  room,  Paul 
at  once  began  to  seek  the  cause  of  the  boy's  trouble. 

"  What  is  the  matter  with  you,  Walter?  You 
have  not  been  yourself  all  day." 

Walter  was  very  white,  and  what  he  said  to  his 
father's  question  was  so  inaudible  that  Paul  could  not 
understand  it. 

"  What  is  the  matter  with  you,  Walter?  Are  you 
sick?  Tell  me,"  said  his  father  sharply. 

"  I  can't,  father,  I  can't,"  Walter  stammered  and 
looked  so  wretched  that  his  father  said  more  gently: 

"  Don't  be  afraid  of  me.  Speak  out  if  you  are  in 
any  trouble.  I  want  to  help  you.  Don't  you  know 
that,  Walter?" 

"  Yes,  but " 

"  Has  it  anything  to  do  with  money  matters?  Tell 
me." 

"Yes,  I  can't!  Can't  do  it,  father.  I  don't 
mean " 

And  then  Walter  broke  down  completely.  He  laid 
his  head  down  on  his  arms  and  cried  hysterically. 
Paul  sat  looking  at  him  sternly.  For  the  first  time 
that  day  an  inkling  of  the  truth  began  to  dawn  on 
him.  At  first  it  did  not  seem  possible  to  him 
that  his  boy  could  do  such  a  thing.  It  was  so 
incredible  to  him  at  first  that  he  sat  silently  eyeing 


28  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

the  bowed  head  with  an  entirely  new  and  bitter  feel- 
ing. 

When  he  finally  spoke  it  was  with  a  slow  and  steady 
measure  of  speech  revealing  great  self-restraint. 

"  Did  you  bet  on  the  race?  Is  that  what's  the 
matter?  " 

Walter  lifted  up  his  head  and  looked  with  a  ter- 
rified face  at  his  father. 

"  0  father,  don't  be  hard  on  me !  I  felt  so  sure 
we  would  win !  I  didn't  see  any  risk !  And  all  the 
fellows  in  Burrton  bet  on  the  race.  A  fellow  isn't 
considered  loyal  to  the  school  unless  he  bets  some- 
thing." 

"  How  much  did  you  lose?  " 

"  I  put  up  that  last  one  hundred  you  sent  me  and 
fifty  more." 

"  When  do  you  have  to  pay  ?  " 

"  I  suppose  at  once.     That's  the  rule." 

"  What  other  debts  have  you?  " 

Walter  hesitated ;  then  he  said  feebly,  "  I  owe  five 
week's  board  and  some  items  at  the  men's  furnishing." 

"  How  much  will  it  all  come  to?  " 

"  I  don't  know." 

"  About  how  much  ?  " 

"  About  seventy-five  dollars." 

"  When  do  you  have  to  pay  that?  " 

"  There's  no  hurry.     It  can  wait." 

"  Do  you  mean  to  say  that  a  bet,  a  gambling  debt, 
an  obligation  made  on  a  dishonourable  basis,  takes 
precedence  in  time  over  honest  claims  for  food  and 
clothing?  " 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  29 

"  It's  the  rule  here  in  Burrton,"  said  Walter  sul- 
lenly. "  If  a  bet  is  not  settled  at  once  the  fellows 
lose  their  standing.  The  same  is  true  at  all  the  east- 
ern schools.  You  have  got  to  meet  debts  of  honour 
promptly." 

"  Debts  of  dishonour,  you  mean." 

"  That  isn't  the  standard  here,  father.  The 
standard  at  Burrton  is  different  from  the  one  at 
home." 

"  I  see  it  is,"  replied  Paul,  drily.  "  But  the  one 

at  home  is "  he  paused,  rose  from  his  seat  and 

went  over  by  the  window  and  stood  there  looking  out 
over  the  school  campus. 

Paul  Douglas  had  had  in  his  fifty  years  of  life 
many  interesting  and  profoundly  moving  experiences, 
but  it  is  doubtful  if  in  all  his  life  he  had  faced  any- 
thing which  stirred  him  so  deeply  as  this.  His  high 
standard  of  conduct  made  him  loathe  the  entire 
gambling  transaction.  It  was  agony  to  him  to  find 
that  his  own  son  Was  swept  off  his  feet  by  a  custom 
which  had  nothing  except  common  custom  to  excuse 
it.  Above  all,  Paul  felt  the  bitterness  that  comes  to 
a  father  when  he  realises  that  the  careful  teaching  of 
years  has  been  deliberately  disobeyed  or  ignored. 
There  was  a  mingling  of  bitterness  and  shame  and 
anger  and  sorrow  and  heartache  in  Paul  that  Walter 
could  not  possibly  understand  as  he  sat  there  looking 
dully  at  his  father's  broad  back  and  wondering  what 
his  father  would  do. 

After  what  seemed  like  an  hour,  Paul  turned 
around. 


30  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

"  Give  me  an  itemised  account  of  your  obligations 
outside  of  your  gambling  expenses." 

"  I  don't  call  it  gambling  to  bet  on  the  races,"  said 
Walter  half  defiantly. 

"  It  make  no  difference  what  you  call  it,"  said  Paul 
sternly.  "  What  is  all  betting  but  trying  to  get 
something  for  nothing,  and  what  is  that  but  gam- 
bling? Every  boy  in  Burrton  who  bet  on  the  race  is 
a  gambler?  " 

"  The  authorities  never  say  anything  against  it," 
said  Walter  sullenly.  "  The  president  knows  that 
thousands  of  dollars  are  put  up  at  every  race  and  he 
never  has  said  a  word  about  it." 

"  We  will  not  argue  about  it,"  said  Paul  coldly. 
"  Give  your  accounts,  your  honest  accounts,  with  the 
tradesmen  here  and  then  pack  up  your  things." 

"  O  father,  you  don't  mean " 

"  Pack  up  your  things.  We  leave  for  Milton  in 
the  morning." 

Walter  took  out  of  a  drawer  the  bills  which  had 
accumulated  there  and  without  a  word  handed  them 
over  to  his  father.  Paul  summed  up  and  found  a 
total  of  $81. 

"Is  that  all?" 

"  Yes,  except  my  tuition  for  this  last  half." 

"How  much  is  that?" 

«  Forty  dollars." 

"Is  that  all?" 

"Yes." 

"  I'll  settle  this  all  up.  You  can  begin  packing 
while  I  am  out.'' 


THE    HIGH   CALLING  31 

Paul  took  the  bills  and  went  out  abruptly,  not 
concealing  from  Walter,  what  was  very  apparent, 
that  he  was  tremendously  angry. 

He  went  to  the  various  tradesmen  and  settled  the 
accounts,  went  to  the  boarding  place  and  paid  the 
arrears  and  after  some  difficulty  on  account  of  the 
holiday,  finally  succeeded  in  settling  the  tuition  at 
the  school  office. 

He  then  asked  the  way  to  the  president's  house, 
and  on  presenting  himself  at  the  door  was  invited 
to  go  into  the  reception  room  and  wait  for  a  few 
moments. 

The  president  was  having  a  call  from  some  old 
classmates  who  had  come  down  to  Burrton  to  see 
the  race.  When  they  went  out,  the  president  ac- 
companied them  to  the  door.  Paul  could  not  avoid 
hearing  one  of  the  visitors  say,  "  I  put  up  my  last 
dollar  on  Burrton.  May  have  to  borrow  to  get  out 
of  town." 

"  Don't  borrow  of  me,"  said  the  president,  laugh- 
ing. "  I've  never  been  able  to  get  back  what  you 
owed  me  at  Cambridge." 

There  was  some  jesting  reply  in  the  familiar  lan- 
guage of  old  college  chums  and  the  visitors  went  out. 

The  president  came  into  the  reception  room  and 
greeted  Douglas  heartily.  He  had  heard  of  him, 
had  read  some  of  his  stories  and  was  glad  he  had 
a  son  at  Burrton. 

"  It's  my  son  I  came  to  see  you  about,  President 
Davis,"  said  Paul  quietly,  when  he  had  returned  the 
president's  hearty  greeting.  "  I  am  going  to  take 


32  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

him  out  of  the  school  and  I  thought  it  was  only  fair 
to  you  that  I  tell  you  frankly  why." 

"  Going  to  take  him  out !     I'm  sorry  to  hear  it." 

"  But  the  atmosphere  of  Burrton  does  not  seem  to 
agree  with  my  son."  Paul  frankly  told  the  presi- 
dent the  incident  of  Walter's  bet  and  the  conse- 
quences, without  any  care  to  hide  the  facts  of  his  own 
intense  convictions  on  the  matter  of  betting  which  he 
mentioned  several  times  as  "  gambling." 

President  Davis  listened  gravely  and  before  Paul 
was  through,  his  face  had  reddened  deeply  more  than 
once.  Paul  spoke  very  bluntly  and  it  was  plain  to 
be  seen  that  he  was  under  a  great  stress  of  feeling 
in  which  was  mingled  a  real,  deep,  strong  anger,  a 
part  of  which  was  directed  against  the  Burrton 
school  and  its  management. 

"  And  so,"  Paul  said  as  he  finished  his  statement, 
"  I  don't  care  to  keep  my  son  in  an  institution  where 
the  standards  are  so  low  that  a  gambling  habit  like 
betting  is  not  even  discouraged  by  the  authori- 
ties." 

"  How  do  you  know  it  is  not  discouraged?  " 

"  My  boy  tells  me  that  during  his  whole  stay  here 
he  has  not  heard  a  word  of  disapproval  or  protest 
against  this  prevalent  habit." 

The  president  turned  to  a  bookcase  near  by  and 
took  down  a  small  volume  entitled  "  Chapel  Talks." 
He  opened  it  at  a  certain  page  and  without  a  word 
pointed  to  a  passage. 

Paul  read  it.  "  There  is  a  prevalent  idea  in  the 
school  that  in  order  to  be  loyal  to  Burrton  th« 


THE    HI£H    CALLING  33 

students  must  all  stand  together,  no  matter  what  is 
done  by  the  student  body.  That  idea  is  false  and  in 
the  end  it  is  harmful  to  the  best  interests  of  the 
school. 

"  Take  for  example  the  custom  of  betting  on  the 
athletics  and  especially  on  the  annual  boat  race. 
This  is  a  custom  which  should  be  discouraged  by 
every  lover  of  the  school.  Betting  is  gambling ;  it  is 
an  attempt  to  get  something  for  nothing.  That  at- 
tempt is  destructive  to  morals  and  dangerous  to 
character.  The  fact  that  many  of  the  alummi  who 
come  to  see  the  games  bet  on  them  is  no  reason  why 
the  undergraduates  should  bet  on  the  games.  I  look 
to  every  student  to  discourage  this  practice  and  use 
his  influence  to  help  abolish  a  harmful  and  dangerous 
habit." 

Paul  looked  up  from  the  reading  and  eyed  the 
president  with  a  new  feeling  of  respect. 

"  I  beg  pardon  for  judging  you,  sir,  without  know- 
ing all  the  facts.  But  this  volume  was  published 
over  a  year  ago.  My  boy  never  heard  these  chapel 
talks.  I  take  it  that  there  has  been  nothing  said 
about  betting  here  for  several  months." 

"  No,  perhaps  not,"  replied  the  president  with 
some  hesitation.  "  But  the  students  generally  know 
my  views  on  the  matter.  That  knowledge,  however, 
does  not  stop  the  betting." 

"  Why  can't  you  put  an  end  to  it  by  forbidding  It 
altogether  ?  " 

In  reply  to  Paul's  question,  President  Davis 
smiled. 


84.  THE   HIGH   CALLING 

"  How  much  power  do  you  think  the  president  of 
an  American  college  has,  Mr.  Douglas?  " 

"  Why,  I  suppose  he  has  enough  to  stop  things 
that  are  absolutely  wrong." 

"  Pardon  me,  Mr.  Douglas,  but  he  has  no  such 
power.  He  may  try  to  stop  them,  but  his  power  to 
do  so  may  be  very  limited.  For  a  year  the  great 
president  of  Harvard,  Dr.  Charles  Eliot,  did  his  best 
to  abolish  or  amend  football  in  that  university.  As 
head  of  the  institution  he  spoke  out  against  the 
game,  which  he  honestly  believed  to  be  brutal  and  de- 
moralising. What  was  the  result  of  his  protest? 
It  had  no  influence  toward  abolishing  the  game  and 
very  little,  if  any,  toward  modifying  it.  The  fact  is 
our  colleges  and  universities  are  just  now  controlled 
in  a  large  measure  by  the  opinion  of  those  who  sup- 
port them.  In  other  words,  the  alumni  in  many  col- 
leges run  the  college,  not  the  president  or  the  officers. 
I  may  say  to  you  frankly  that  such  is  the  case  at 
Burrton.  Two  of  the  visitors  who  were  here  a  few 
minutes  ago  are  really  more  influential  with  the 
board  of  trustees  than  I  am.  They  are  heavy  con- 
tributors. One  of  them  gave  us  a  gymnasium  last 
year.  They  are  very  fond  of  athletics.  Both  of 
them  are  betting  men.  It  would  be  a  very  difficult 
task  to  regulate  the  athletics  in  Burrton  in  opposi- 
tion to  these  alumni ;  so  there  you  are,  as  to  a  presi- 
dent's influence.  All  this  in  confidence,  Mr.  Doug- 
las." 

"It  must  be  great  fun  to  be  president  of  a  uni- 
versity," said  Paul  in  disgust.  "  It  seems  to  me  if 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  35 

I  were  president  of  this  school  I  should  want  to  be 
president,  especially  in  matters  of  conduct  and 
morals." 

"  You  would  see  it  differently  if  you  were  presi- 
dent," said  Davis  with  a  faint  smile.  "  Among  other 
difficulties  that  we  face  here  is  the  fact  that  Burrton, 
being  unusually  well  equipped  for  technical  high- 
class  preparation  in  electrical  engineering,  is  a 
favorite  school  for  the  difficult  sons  of  rich  men  who 
do  not  know  how  to  get  on  elsewhere.  We  have  on 
our  hands  the  greatest  of  all  problems — how  to  make 
useful  men  out  of  a  class  of  individuals  who  from 
boyhood  have  been  reared  in  habits  of  the  most 
princely  luxury  and  disregard  of  all  rules  of  re- 
straint. The  fact  that  we  don't  toady  to  all  these 
rich  men  is  seen  in  the  records,  which  show  during 
the  year  over  two  hundred  men  suspended  for  failure 
to  meet  the  standard  requirements.  And  as  to  the 
betting,  Mr.  Douglas,  your  boy  has  now  learned  his 
lesson  and  will  not  do  that  again.  Hadn't  you  bet- 
ter reconsider?  Will  he  find  conditions  any  different 
or  any  better  in  any  other  school  that  you  know? 
Do  you  know  any  college  East  or  West  where  the 
student  atmosphere  is  absolutely  free  from  all  evil 
customs  and  habits?" 

"  I  must  confess  I  don't,"  said  Paul,  slowly.  "  I 
don't  mind  saying  that  this  action  of  my  son's  has 
made  me  very  angry.  Still,  I  don't  deny  that  it 
might  have  happened  in  any  one  of  a  dozen  colleges 
in  any  part  of  the  country.  A  large  part  of  my 
grievance  was  because  it  seemed  to  me  and,  pardon 


36  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

me,  seems  yet,  that  the  institution  was  to  blame  for 
keeping  so  still  about  these  things,  and  doing  so  little 
to  create  a  different  moral  standard.  But  I'm  not 
asking  Burrton  to  take  all  the  blame.  My  boy  has 
got  to  take  his  punishment,  and  I  don't  know  of  a 
better  one  than  to  take  him  home." 

"  I  hope  you  won't  resort  to  that  measure,"  said 
the  president,  earnestly.  "  Your  son  has  unusual 
talent.  He  holds  the  highest  place  in  the  shops  for 
original  research.  Give  him  another  chance.  It  is 
my  opinion  that  he  will  not  disappoint  you  again." 

"  Perhaps  not,"  answered  Paul  as  he  rose  to  go. 
"  But  I  have  about  made  up  my  mind." 

"  I  hope  you'll  change  it,"  said  the  president  as 
Paul  went  away. 

"  Perhaps,"  answered  Paul  briefly. 

He  walked  slowly  back  to  Walter's  room,  asking 
many  questions  as  he  went  along.  His  talk  with  the 
president  had  given  him  another  angle  from  which 
to  j  udge  the  boy's  conduct.  He  could  not  hide  from 
himself  that  his  heart  was  sore  over  the  whole  matter, 
because  he  had  never  dreamed  that  his  own  boy  would 
fall  before  a  temptation  which  he  had  so  often  heard 
his  father  condemn  at  home.  Paul  Douglas  was 
humiliated,  as  a  man  always  is  when  his  children  be- 
gin to  show  the  bad  habits  he  has  been  fond  of 
criticising  in  other  people's  children.  And  he  had 
not  yet  been  able  to  find  any  reasonable  excuse  for 
Walter. 

When  he  went  into  the  room  he  fomnd  Walter 
packing  things  up  and  evidently  with  no  purpose  of 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  37 

remonstrating  or  trying  to  change  his  father's 
decision. 

"  There's  a  letter  from  mother,"  he  said  briefly 
as  Paul  came  up  to  the  table  in  the  middle  of  the 
room. 

"  You  want  me  to  read  it  ?  " 

"  Yes." 

Paul  sat  down  to  read  and  Walter  went  on  witK 
his  packing. 

"  Dear  Walter,"  Esther  wrote,  "  I  am  so  glad 
your  father  has  this  opportunity  to  visit  you  and  I 
presume  he  is  at  Burrton  now.  You  will  have  good 
times  together  and  I  am  envying  him  the  privilege. 
I  have  missed  you,  boy,  more  than  you  can  imagine. 
But  then  you  will  never  know  how  much  your  mother 
has  depended  on  you  here  at  home.  You  were  al- 
ways so  thoughtful  and  kind,  how  can  I  help  miss- 
ing my  eldest. 

"  I  have  been  thinking  a  good  deal  lately  about 
the  different  standards  that  prevail  in  different 
places  and  I  have  no  doubt  you  have  noticed  that 
some  of  the  things  we  have  always  taught  you  here 
at  home  are  not  held  by  others  in  the  school  where 
you  now  are.  I  believe  you  will  be  able  to  decide 
fairly  when  it  is  necessary  as  to  what  is  right  and 
wrong  and  not  allow  the  fact  of  a  different  standard 
to  confuse  your  judgment.  I  simply  want  you  to 
know,  Walter,  that  I  have  the  utmost  confidence  in 
you.  I  am  proud  of  my  boy's  ability.  I  expect  you 
will  make  one  of  the  finest  engineers  in  the  United 


38  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

States,  and  better  yet,  one  of  the  finest  men  in  the 
world. 

"  What  do  you  think  has  been  the  great  event  of 
the  last  week?  Helen  had  a  young  man  caller  two 
nights  ago.  It  was  the  oldest  son  of  Judge  Ran- 
dolph on  Chandos  street.  The  boy  is  a  little  younger 
than  Helen,  I  think.  He  called  in  a  formal  way  and 
to  hear  him  talk  to  Helen  convulsed  me.  I  finally 
had  to  retire,  but  Helen  was  furious  with  me  after 
young  Randolph  went  away.  The  child  was  very 
much  disturbed  and  claims  to  despise  the  youth,  etc. 
It  was  like  the  story  I  was  reading  the  other  day : 

"  A  young  man  had  been  calling  now  and  then  on 
a  young  lady,  when  one  night  as  he  sat  in  the  parlour 
waiting  for  her  to  come  down,  her  mother  entered  the 
room  instead,  and  asked  him  in  a  very  grave,  stern 
way  what  his  intentions  were.  He  turned  very  red 
and  was  about  to  stammer  some  incoherent  reply 
when  suddenly  the  young  lady  called  down  from  the 
head  of  the  stairs :  *  Mamma,  mamma,  that  is  not  the 
one.' 

"  But,  oh  dear.  Must  I  realise  '  old  age  is  creep- 
ing on  apace  '  when  my  girl  begins  to  have  gentlemen 
callers?  Helen  will  have  many  admirers.  She  is  a 
girl  who  has  very  decided  views  and  is  very  frank  to 
express  them.  Now  don't  tease  her  when  you  write 
her,  for  this  is  in  confidence.  You  must  not  betray 
me. 

"  Louis  is  doing  very  well  now  at  school.  His 
headaches  trouble  him  some.  I  am  giving  him  a 
course  of  careful  training.  He  was  much  interested 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  39 

in  the  set  of  models  you  sent  him.  It  was  good  of 
you  to  remember  him.  He  admires  you  vastly. 
Don't  forget  that,  boy,  will  you? 

"  You  must  come  home  for  the  holidays.  We 
want  the  family  all  together  then.  Make  your  plans 
accordingly. 

"  All  send  love,  and  most  of  all,  your  Mother." 

Paul  finished  the  letter  and  laid  it  down.  He  sat 
there  for  a  while  in  silence.  Walter  did  not  venture 
to  break  it.  Finally  Paul  said :  "  Walter,  I've  been 
thinking  over  this  affair  and  perhaps  I  have  a  new 
look  at  it.  I  want  to  tell  you  about  it." 

A  light  came  into  Walter's  face  which  had  been 
fixed  and  dogged  and  he  got  up  from  in  front  of  his 
trunk  where  he  had  been  kneeling  and  came  up  to  the 
table. 

"  Sit  down  there,"  said  Paul  gravely.  Walter  sat 
down  opposite  his  father,  and  the  two,  father  and 
son,  looked  at  each  other  earnestly  across  the  table. 


CHAPTER   III 

PAUL  DOUGLAS  was  trying  to  think  of  his  own 
boyhood  and  his  temptations  as  he  faced  his  own 
son  on  that  memorable  afternoon.  His  anger  at  the 
boy  had  almost  subsided.  The  feeling  that  remained 
was  a  feeling  of  grief  and  fear  mingled  at  the  antic- 
ipation of  a  failure  on  Walter's  part  to  realise  the 
grave  nature  of  the  crisis  through  which  he  was  pass- 
ing. 

"  I've  been  thinking  over  all  this,  Walter,"  Paul 
began  slowly,  "  and  I  am  willing  you  should  remain 
here  on  certain  conditions." 

"  Oh,  father,  I'll  do  anything,"  Walter  began  im- 
pulsively. 

"  Let  me  state  them,"  his  father  went  on  gravely. 
"  They  may  seem  hard  to  you.  But  I'm  older  than 
you  and  have  a  right  to  expect  obedience  if  the  terms 
are  just. 

"  In  the  first  place  I  shall  expect  you  to  earn  the 
amount  you  have  incurred  with  your  gambling  and 
repay  me.  Is  that  fair?  " 

"  Yes,"  Walter  spoke,  wincing  at  his  father's  use 
of  the  word.  "  I  wish  you  would  not  say  '  gam- 
bling '  father.  It  was  a  friendly  wager.  It  is  the 
regular  college  custom." 

"  I  do  not  care  what  you  call  it  or  what  the  custom 

40 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  41 

is  here,"  said  Paul,  his  anger  beginning  to  flame  up. 
"  The  wager,  the  custom,  the  whatever  you  call  it,  is 
gambling.  It  is  gambling  as  much  as  any  custom  at 
Monte  Carlo  or  any  of  the  gambling  hells  of  Europe. 
The  principle  is  the  same  always ;  it  is  the  desire  and 
the  hope  of  getting  something  for  nothing,  a  thing 
totally  contrary  to  every  divine  law  of  life.  Don't 
you  see  it,  Walter?  Do  you  think  I  would  be  so 
much  disturbed  about  the  matter  if  it  were  of  little 
account?  " 

"  No,  I  suppose  not." 

Paul  looked  at  the  boy  with  growing  earnestness. 
It  was  not  reassuring  to  consider  the  possibility  of 
his  boy  growing  up  with  blunted  ideals,  with  feeble 
convictions  and  a  faint  sense  of  the  eternal  difference 
between  sharp  cut  right  and  wrong.  The  most  sor- 
rowful experience  in  Paul  Douglas's  life  might  be 
coming  to  him  at  this  time  if  he  should  find  his 
own  son  lacking  in  the  real  essentials  of  moral 
earnestness. 

"  Then,"  he  went  on,  "  another  condition  of  your 
remaining  here  is  that  you  promise  me  never  to  bet 
on  anything  again." 

Walter  interrupted  eagerly,  "  You  don't  need  to 
worry  over  that.  I've  learned  my  lesson.  You 
don't  think  I  feel  especially  drawn  towards  that  sort 
of  thing,  do  you?  " 

"  I  hope  not,"  said  Paul  with  a  feeling  of  relief. 
There  was  a  pause.  Then  Paul  said  as  he  picked  up 
Esther's  letter,  "  You  will  write  mother.  I'll  leave  it 
to  you  to  tell  her  what  you  think  you  ought.  But 


42  THE    HIGH   CALLING 

she  is  building  great  castles  on  your  estate,  my  boy. 
Don't  disappoint  her,  will  you?  " 

"  No,  father,  I  won't,"  Walter  replied  in  a  low 
voice.  There  was  another  pause  and  then  Paul  said 
cheerfully,  "  I  must  go  back  on  the  night  train.  It's 
only  fair  to  you  to  say  that  President  Davis  paid  you 
a  fine  compliment  speaking  of  your  rank  in  the  engi- 
neering department.  We  all  expect  great  things  of 
you  in  that  line."  Walter  coloured  with  pleasure  at 
the  statement. 

"  They've  got  a  great  equipment  here,  father. 
That  was  the  first  reason  I  felt  awfully  bad  to  leave. 
I  don't  believe  there  is  another  school  like  Burrton 
for  electrical  engineering." 

Paul  rose  to  go  and  Walter  went  with  him  down 
to  the  station.  Paul's  parting  word  was  affectionate 
and  hopeful. 

"  Do  your  best,  boy,  and  don't  forget  to  pray." 

Walter  remembered  that  brief  but  serious  appeal 
a  long  time.  His  father  had  not  often  talked  reli- 
gious matters  with  him.  At  the  same  time  Walter 
had  grown  up  with  a  strong  impression  of  his  father's 
own  religious  character  and  without  much  having 
been  said  he  had  always  had  the  deepest  respect  for 
his  father's  splendid  Christian  character.  That 
same  evening  he  wrote  home  to  his  mother.  Under 
the  influence  of  his  father's  treatment  of  his  conduct 
he  made  a  full  and  frank  confession  of  his  actions 
but  at  one  point  he  could  not  help  saying,  "  I  told 
father  I  did  not  feel  as  if  the  bet  was  such  an  awful 
thing  on  account  of  it  being  a  regular  custom  here 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  43 

at  Burrton.  You  know  I've  written  before  about 
the  standard  being  different.  But  father  was  all  up- 
set by  it.  Mother,  I  don't  think  I  have  any  tempta- 
tion to  gamble  as  a  regular  thing,  and  I  have  prom- 
ised never  to  bet  again,  but  you  know  I  like  nice 
things  and  I  wanted  the  money  so  I  wouldn't  have 
to  bone  quite  so  hard.  Father  is  good  to  me  to  let 
me  stay  on.  I  don't  know  what  I  would  have  done 
if  he  had  taken  me  out.  There  is  no  other  school 
quite  up  to  this  for  equipment  and  I'm  not  fit  for 
anything  else.  I'm  working  on  a  new  lamp  for  city 
street  lighting.  We  are  allowed  so  many  hours  a 
week  for  original  study  and  research.  I  can't  de- 
scribe my  work  and  you  would  not  understand  it  if 
I  did.  But  my  problem  is  to  find  a  way  of  making 
an  electric  arc  light  which  will  go  without  an  ex- 
pensive mechanism  and  be  self-regulating  without 
machinery.  There  is  a  German  student  in  my  class 
by  the  name  of  Felix  Bauer  who  is  working  at  the 
same  problem.  Bauer  is  a  good  friend  of  mine  and 
we  have  our  laboratory  tables  in  the  same  number. 
Now,  mother,  you  won't  think  I  am  altogether  de- 
praved, will  you?  I  am  planning  to  stick  close  to 
work  from  now  on.  I  don't  want  to  disappoint  you 
and  father  and  I  don't  believe  I  shall.  But  you  will 
remember,  won't  you,  that  the  standard  here  is  differ- 
ent from  the  one  at  home  in  many  ways.  For 
example,  mother,  most  of  the  fellows  talk  very  freely 
and  even  coarsely  about  girls,  and  a  good  many  of 
the  rich  set  have  pictures  of  actresses  in  their  rooms 
and  tell  stories  about  them  that  I  can't  repeat.  All 


44  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

that  disgusts  me  and  I  have  never  heard  anyone 
utter  any  protest  in  a  crowd  where  the  stories  are 
going  around.  You  see  the  standard  is  different 
here.  And  I  told  father  of  a  number  of  other  cus- 
toms that  are  different  from  those  we  are  used  to  at 
home.  There  is  a  different  atmosphere  about  every- 
thing. I  can't  describe  it  exactly,  but  I  can  feel  the 
difference.  I  don't  believe  there  is  very  much  of 
what  we  know  at  home  as  *  spiritual  life.'  There  are 
some  fine  fellows  here  and  some  high  ambitions,  but 
the  chapel  service  is  all  voluntary,  and  only  a  hand- 
ful of  fellows  ever  go  unless  some  big  gun  comes  to 
give  a  chapel  talk,  and  then  the  president  allows  only 
fifteen  minutes  for  the  whole  service. 

"  What  you  wrote  about  Helen  having  a  beau  was 
funny.  I  can't  imagine  what  Helen  will  do  when  the 
callers  begin  to  come.  Well,  mother,  I  want  you  to 
think  of  me  as  too  busy  with  my  work  to  get  into  any 
more  trouble.  I  am  awfully  interested,  especially  in 
the  original  problem — I  believe  I  almost  stumbled  on 
the  making  of  a  successful  arc  light,  without  a  regu- 
lating mechanism,  a  few  days  ago.  I  have  been 
dreaming  over  it  ever  since  and  I  am  quite  confident 
it  can  be  done.  Felix  Bauer  said  the  other  day  he 
thought  he  had  it  all  right,  but  the  plan  escaped 
him.  It's  exciting,  mother,  to  keep  trying  different 
combinations,  not  knowing  any  minute  when  you 
may  hit  on  a  new  discovery.  I  hope  Louis  is  behav- 
ing himself  in  his  studies.  I  am  sending  him  by  mail 
a  time  switch  that  he  asked  me  about. 

"  Much  love  to  all.     Your  affectionate  son 

"  WALTER." 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  45 

Esther  read  this  letter  over  carefully  twice,  and 
then,  as  her  habit  was,  answered  it  almost  im- 
mediately. It  was  a  part  of  her  training  of  her 
children  that  she  had  frankly  taken  them  into  her 
confidence  when  they  were  little  and  had  had  the 
wisdom  and  courage  to  discuss  with  them  the  ques- 
tions that  were  really  vital  to  their  bodies  and  minds. 
There  was  one  reason  Walter  wrote  as  frankly  to  his 
mother  as  he  did  about  everything,  knowing  she 
would  understand  exactly.  And  that  was  the  rea- 
son his  mother  in  her  turn  could  write  as  she  did  in 
reply,  entering  fully  into  the  boy's  real  life. 

She  did  not  take  much  time  to  reproach  him  for 
the  betting  incident,  believing  that  Paul  had  em- 
phasised that  quite  strongly,  but  she  did  express  the 
hope  that  her  son  would  not  be  afraid  to  be  inde- 
pendent of  surroundings  and  stand  on  his  own  feet 
and  have  his  own  convictions,  and  then  she  went  on 
to  say:  "  One  of  the  hardest  things  you  will  have  to 
do  all  your  life  is  to  be  independent.  This  will  take 
more  courage  often  than  for  a  woman  to  be  out  of 
fashion.  But  there  isn't  a  finer  thing  in  all  the 
world  than  an  independent  soul,  one  that  knows  the 
right  and  does  it  even  if  the  whole  world  around  is 
doing  exactly  the  other  thing.  If  the  coarse  stories 
you  mention  are  told  in  your  presence  you  don't  have 
to  join  in  the  laugh  over  them.  There  is  a  number 
of  ways  in  which  you  can  clearly  make  those  fellows 
understand  yeur  attitude  in  that  matter  and  of 
course  you  have  the  right  and  privilege  of  guarding 
yourself  from  any  talk  of  that  sort  in  your  own 
room.  Your  room  is  your  castle.  Guard  it  from 


46  THE   HIGH   CALLING 

impurity.  I  feel  as  if  almost  any  kind  of  wrong 
could  be  excused  in  a  young  man  who  has  the  vir- 
tue of  a  pure  heart  and  maintains  constant  respect 
for  womankind.  But,  if  I  ever  gave  you  any  advice 
about  the  choice  of  a  friend,  I  think  I  should  be 
quite  safe  in  saying  to  you,  be  very  slow  to  accept 
into  the  sacred  place  of  your  friendship  any  young 
man  who  talks  with  impure  lips  of  womanhood. 
Such  a  man  is  a  blight  on  all  he  touches. 

"  I  trust  you,  Walter,  to  make  the  most  of  your 
opportunities  and  make  us  all  proud  of  you.  Suc- 
cess to  the  arc  lamp.  Write  us  the  minute  you  suc- 
ceed. Tell  me  more  about  the  German  schoolmate. 
We  are  interested  in  him  and  somehow  I  feel  from 
the  little  you  have  told  us  of  him  that  he  is  a  fine 
young  fellow. 

"  Helen  is  very  dignified  about  her  callers.  There 
is  nothing  more  to  tell  about  her." 

"  All  send  love,  most  of  all,  mother." 

When  Paul  reached  home  he  told  Esther  somewhat 
in  detail  the  incidents  of  the  boat  race  and  his  in- 
terview with  the  president.  He  was  hopeful  for 
Walter  and  believed  the  boy  had  learned  his  lesson 
and  would  not  fail  at  that  point  again.  But  he 
could  not  understand  the  particular  "streak,"  as  he 
called  it,  in  Walter's  make  up,  which  seemed  to  de- 
mand expensive  and  needless  luxuries. 

"  The  boy  had  bought  a  very  elaborate  dresser. 
It  was  quartered  oak  and  had  a  number  of  patent  ar- 
rangements about  it  that  made  it  unusually  expen- 
sive. Walter  confessed  it  cost  him  forty-seven  dol- 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  47 

lars.  This  was  one  of  the  things  he  went  in  debt  for. 
It  seems  he  had  become  enamoured  of  just  such  a 
dresser  in  one  of  the  rooms  he  had  been  caring  for,  a 
suite  belonging  to  Van  Shaw,  the  son  of  the  steel 
magnate  at  Allworth.  Of  course,  we  want  our  son 
to  go  through  school  with  all  the  comforts  around 
him  necessary  for  his  proper  culture  and  education. 
But  I  cannot  see  for  the  life  of  me  how  a  forty- 
seven  dollar  quartered  oak  dresser  is  going  to  make 
any  more  of  a  man  of  him,  especially  when  he  goes 
in  debt  for  it.  I  told  him  so  and  to  my  disappoint- 
ment he  took  what  I  said  rather  badly.  That  is,  he 
flared  up  some  and  seemed  hurt  at  my  criticism  of  his 
luxurious  habits.  But  it  isn't  the  luxurious  tastes  I 
object  to  so  much  as  the  reckless  and  inexcusable 
act  of  going  in  debt  for  such  a  thing;  that  is  per- 
fectly inexcusable.  Where  did  Walter  get  his 
tastes,  do  you  suppose?" 

"  Oh,  dear,  I  don't  know,"  said  Esther  with  a 
sigh.  "You  know  Louis  used  to  have  just  a  streak 
in  him.  Perhaps  some  of  my  ancestors  on  father's 
side  were  French  aristocrats  before  the  revolution. 
You  know  the  Darcys  had  estates  in  southern  France 
in  the  sixteenth  century.  I  don't  believe  any  more 
than  you  do,  Paul,  that  a  forty-seven  dollar  dresser 
is  at  all  necessary  to  Walter's  education.  He  will 
have  to  learn  better  ways.  We  must  not  forget  his 
splendid  good  qualities  in  other  directions.  He  has 
a  great  many.  I  can't  believe  he  is  going  to  disap- 
point us." 

"  No,   I   can't   believe   that,"   said   Paul   gravely. 


48  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

"  But  the  boy  has  much  to  learn  and  I  hope  he  will 
learn  it  without  unnecessary  suffering." 

It  was  this  same  week,  two  days  after  the  receipt 
of  his  mother's  letter,  that  Walter  had  an  unusual 
and  rather  dramatic  opportunity  to  act  on  his 
mother's  advice,  in  the  matter  of  asserting  his  rights 
about  the  kind  of  conversation  he  would  permit  in  his 
own  room. 

Walter  had  very  little  acquaintance  with  Van 
Shaw  and  the  rich  men's  sons'  set  at  Burrton.  But 
incidentally  it  had  come  out  during  his  chance  meet- 
ing with  Van  Shaw  that  Walter's  mother  was  a 
Darcy.  The  Darcys  were  at  the  time  immensely 
influential  at  Allworth,  Van  Shaw's  home.  The  fact 
that  Walter  was  doing  manual  labor  at  Burrton  did 
not  affect  his  social  standing  very  seriously,  as  at 
the  time,  there  had  not  come  into  Burrton  the  social 
stigma  against  a  student  working  his  way  through 
which  had  already  come  into  several  state  universi- 
ties and  technical  schools  in  this  country.  Besides, 
there  was  in  all  of  Walter's  make  up  that  indefinable 
stamp  of  high  breeding  and  refinement,  helped  on  by 
an  unusually  attractive  and  handsome  bearing, 
which  made  him  look  distinguished  in  any  group  of 
young  men.  When  he  had  put  on  his  best  suit  be- 
fore the  forty-seven  dollar  dresser  and  come  out  on 
the  rare  occasions  when  he  could  spare  time  for  some 
function,  he  was  in  many  ways  the  most  elegant  per- 
son in  all  the  company. 

Van  Shaw  had  gradually  taken  a  peculiar  attitude 
toward  Walter,  partly  of  recognition  of  his  family 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  49 

and  its  antecedents  and  partly  of  patronage,  as  if 
he  took  for  granted  Walter  would  welcome  his  at- 
tentions. As  a  matter  of  fact,  Walter  resented  Van 
Shaw's  bearing  toward  him,  but  in  his  weakness  and 
his  leaning  toward  the  upper  society  he  envied, 
Walter  endured  what  otherwise  he  would  have  been 
ashamed  to  acknowledge.  On  two  occasions  it  had 
been  a  relief  to  Walter  to  be  of  help  to  Van  Shaw 
in  the  electrical  rooms.  And  on  the  particular  oc- 
casion we  are  now  to  describe  Van  Shaw  had  come 
into  Walter's  room  one  evening  to  ask  him  about  a 
point  in  connection  with  some  original  work  which 
had  to  do  with  the  winding  of  a  single  phase  alterna- 
tor. 

While  they  were  talking  over  the  problem  and 
Walter  was  trying  to  make  Van  Shaw  see  how  im- 
portant it  was  to  take  account  of  the  position  in- 
duced in  the  several  turns  and  the  fact  of  the  reac- 
tion of  the  armature  current,  half  a  dozen  other  fel- 
lows dropped  in.  Walter  was  quite  popular  and  not 
infrequently  eight  or  ten  students  might  be  found  in 
his  rooms,  as  on  this  occasion. 

Van  Shaw  was  soon  in  possession  of  all  Walter's 
knowledge  on  the  subject,  for  he  was  bright  enough 
mentally,  and  he  carelessly  sauntered  over  to  the 
dresser  and  made  a  comment  on  it.  Then  he  noticed 
a  picture  of  Helen  Douglas,  a  new  one  which  Helen 
had  sent  Walter  within  the  last  few  days. 

"  Sister,  isn't  she?  "  asked  Van  Shaw. 

Walter  nodded. 

"  Mighty  handsome  girl.     Hope  she'll  visit  you 


50  THE    HIGH   CALLING 

some  time,"  said  Van  Shaw,  as  he  picked  up  the  pho- 
tograph and  started  to  pass  it  around  among  the 
other  fellows. 

There  was  something  so  offensive  in  the  tone  and 
manner  of  Van  Shaw  that  Walter,  who  was  stand- 
ing near  him,  intercepted  the  picture  before  anyone 
in  the  room  could  take  it.  He  put  it  back  into  its 
place  without  a  word.  Van  Shaw  laughed. 

"  Say,  maybe  she  isn't  your  sister,  either.  That 
makes  me  think,"  and  before  Walter  could  realise 
what  he  was  doing,  Van  Shaw  had  begun  a  question- 
able story,  while  the  group  in  the  room  sat  and 
lounged  around  with  looks  of  anticipated  amuse- 
ment. 

Walter  Douglas  will  never  forget  that  scene  and 
his  part  in  it  if  he  lives  a  hundred  years.  Van  Shaw 
was  leaning  up  against  the  dresser,  in  a  vain  way 
mindful  of  the  impression  he  was  about  to  make, 
when  Walter  interrupted  him.  Walter  was  very 
pale  and  what  he  said  came  from  lips  that  trembled 
with  a  mingling  of  anger,  and  fear  of  the  result. 

"  Wait !  I  would  rather  you  would  not  tell  that 
story  in  my  room." 

Van  Shaw  could  not  have  been  more  astonished  if 
Walter  had  pointed  a  gun  at  him.  The  rest  of  the 
company  simply  stared  in  the  most  profound  silence 
at  Walter.  Ten  or  fifteen  seconds  ticked  away. 
Then  Van  Shaw,  who  had  turned  very  red  in  the  face, 
said,  slowly :  "  I  don't  know  as  you  have  anything  to 
say  about  this.  I  don't  intend  to  let  a  good  story 
go  untold." 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  51 

"  You  don't  tell  it  here  in  my  room." 

"  I  don't?     Who  will  prevent  it?  v 

"  I  will." 

Van  Shaw  turned  a  little  toward  Walter.  Doug- 
las was  smaller,  shorter,  and  of  lighter  build  in  every 
way  than  himself.  But  he  was  in  the  real  point  of 
vantage,  in  his  own  room.  The  other  students  did 
not  seem  disposed  to  take  any  sides  in  the  matter. 
But  one  of  them  said:  "  Oh,  cut  it  out,  Van,  if  Doug- 
las doesn't  like  it.  A  fellow  has  a  right  to  say  what 
he  wants  in  his  own  room.  It's  only  a  matter  of 
taste  anyhow." 

Van  Shaw  looked  at  Walter  savagely.  Then  he 
sauntered  across  the  room. 

"  Come  out  in  the  hall,  fellows,  and  I'll  finish  there. 
This  air  is  too  pious  for  my  health." 

Some  of  the  boys  laughed,  and  three  or  four  fel- 
lows followed  Van  Shaw  out.  The  rest  stayed. 
When  the  door  shut  on  Van  Shaw,  one  of  the  older 
students,  who  had  been  silent  throughout,  walked  up 
to  Walter  and  shook  hands  with  him.  Then  the  rest 
of  the  group  followed.  Not  a  word  was  said  by  any- 
one. These  youths,  some  of  them  already  hardened 
by  dissipation,  had  at  least  the  native  good  sense 
not  to  mar  the  occasion  by  any  silly  attempt  at 
words.  They  simply  shook  Walter's  hand  and  went 
out.  And  when  the  last  one  was  gone,  Walter 
turned  the  key  in  his  door  and  went  into  his  bedroom 
adjoining,  and  flung  himself  down  on  the  bed  and 
cried. 

I  don't  know  that  he  could  have  given  any  real 


52  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

reason  for  his  emotion.  But  he  was  somewhat  un- 
strung by  the  event.  And  a  number  of  tumultuous 
feelings  were  stirring  deeply  in  him.  He  turned  hot 
and  cold  at  the  thought  of  his  own  possible 
cowardice.  And  then  he  felt  a  reaction  of  shame 
in  the  thought  that  after  this,  Van  Shaw  and  all  his 
set  would  cut  him  dead.  He  was  ashamed  to  feel, 
even  after  all  he  had  done,  that  he  still  shrank  from 
the  possibility  of  social  scorn,  even  from  a  set  of 
men  who  had  no  more  moral  standing  than  Van 
Shaw  had. 

But,  on  the  whole,  having  stood  by  his  rights  as 
he  had,  and  having  the  pleasant  consciousness  of 
being  true  to  his  own  principles,  he  was  disposed  to 
feel  a  glow  of  commendation,  and  later  in  the  even- 
ing as  Helen's  splendid  picture  looked  at  him  almost 
as  if  she  was  present,  Walter  said  to  himself :  "  I'm 
glad  I  spoke  out.  I'm  glad." 

And  then,  because  he  had  been  brought  up  from 
a  small  boy  to  confide  in  his  mother,  he  found  great 
relief  for  his  feelings  that  same  night  in  writing  to 
her.  He  mentioned  no  names,  simply  said  that  cur- 
iously soon  after  his  mother  had  written  as  she  did 
about  guarding  his  own  room  from  evil  talk  he  had 
had  an  opportunity  to  do  it.  He  did  not  dwell  upon 
the  matter  at  all,  and  did  not  take  any  special  credit 
to  himself  for  his  action,  but  simply  reminded  his 
mother  again  of  the  difference  in  standards  and  con- 
duct. He  expressed  gratitude  that  some  of  the  fel- 
lows had  at  least  silently  stood  by  him.  And  he 
ended  his  letter  by  saying  that  he  was  almost  on  the 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  53 

edge  of  discovery  of  the  arc  light,  although  it  still 
eluded  him. 

For  the  next  two  weeks  Walter  was  completely 
absorbed  in  his  studies.  Every  spare  hour  he  could 
get  he  pored  and  worked  over  his  original  problem. 
There  were  points  about  it  which  perplexed  and  ex- 
asperated him.  Felix  Bauer  was  as  hard  at  work 
on  the  same  problem  as  himself,  and  said  one  even- 
ing with  a  good-natured  laugh  that  he  believed  he 
had  mastered  it.  "  All  I  lack  is  that  one  thing 
necessary  what  we  call  the  '  Beduerfniss  '  the  '  einege 
gewollte,' "  said  Bauer,  as  he  took  off  his  shop  cap 
and  thoughtfully  ran  a  lead  pencil  back  and  forth 
through  the  short  curly  hair  over  his  ear. 

"  That's  all  I  lack,"  said  Walter.  "  If  I  could 
get  your  *  einege  gewollte,9  I  would  have  my  an- 
swer." 

"  Hope  you  will  get  it,"  said  Bauer,  pleasantly, 
as  he  closed  up  his  locker  and  went  out  to  meet  an- 
other class  period. 

After  he  had  gone,  Walter  worked  on  until  he  was 
the  only  person  left  in  the  workroom.  He  had  the 
entire  afternoon  and  evening,  as  it  happened,  and 
was  so  absorbed  in  his  experiments  that  he  was 
hardly  aware  of  his  being  alone  until  he  looked  up 
and  saw  that  the  big  room  was  empty,  and  that  it 
was  dusk.  Without  any  thought  of  supper  he 
turned  on  the  light  over  his  table  and  made  some 
mathematical  calculations.  Then  he  ran  out  of 
paper  and  looked  about  over  the  litter  of  stuff  in 
front  of  him  for  another  piece,  but  not  finding  any, 


54  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

glanced  naturally  over  to  Bauer's  table,  which  was 
next  his  own. 

There  was  a  folded  bit  of  paper  there,  and  Walter 
reached  out  for  it,  took  it,  and  opened  it  up.  It  was 
covered  on  one  side  with  some  drawings  and  dia- 
grams, and  as  Walter  looked  at  them,  not  paying 
much  attention  at  first,  as  he  worked  a  high  power 
formula  over  in  his  head,  a  little  at  a  time  it  dawned 
on  him  as  he  continued  to  stare  at  Bauer's  drawings, 
that  without  having  realised  it  himself,  perhaps, 
Bauer  had  actually  suggested  in  his  own  drawing  the 
key  to  the  arc  light  Walter  had  been  puzzling  over 
for  several  months  without  success. 

"  Yes !  yes  !  "  Walter  was  saying,  excitedly,  to  him- 
self. "  I  see  it !  I  see  it !  What  a  numby  I  was. 
The  electrodes  can  be  fitted  with  teeth  at  equal  dis- 
tances. Let  the  tooth  rest  on  the  porcelain  plate. 
It  will  gradually  soften  and  melt  under  the  heat  of 
the  arc.  Then — then.  I  see !  I  see — the  electrode 
will,  or  it  ought  to,  drop  down  of  its  own  weight 
upon  the  next  tooth.  Then  that  will  melt  and  the 
electrode  will  drop  again.  The  two  electrodes  can 
be  coupled  together  with  a  scissors  coupling,  so  the 
teeth  will  have  to  be  made  in  only  one  of  them.  I 
see  the  whole  thing !  Hurrah !  "  He  said  the  last 
word  out  loud.  The  echo  of  it  in  the  big,  empty 
shop  startled  him.  The  glow  of  the  discoverer,  of 
the  inventor,  was  on  him  and  within  him.  Then  he 
received  a  distinct  reaction.  That  was  Bauer's 
paper,  not  his !  He  had  left  it  out  of  the  locker 
when  he  went  away !  It  was  Bauer's  discovery,  not 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  55 

his,  even  if  Bauer  did  not  yet  realise  the  real  value 
and  meaning  of  his  diagram.  He  was  on  the  road 
to  the  discovery. 

Walter  stared  at  the  paper  again  and  wished  he 
had  never  seen  it.  For  he  was  face  to  face  with  a 
real  temptation,  one  of  the  hardest  and  most  allur- 
ing his  young  manhood  had  ever  confronted,  and  he 
was  afraid,  as  he  continued  to  stare  at  the  diagram 
made  by  Felix  Bauer. 


CHAPTER  IV 

IT  was  ten  o'clock  at  night  when  Walter  finally 
went  out  of  the  shop  and  up  to  his  room.  He  did 
not  turn  on  the  light  at  once,  but  went  over  by  his 
table  and  sat  down. 

The  temptation  he  still  faced  had  assumed  alluring 
shapes.  In  the  first  place,  he  was  saying  to  himself, 
"  Bauer's  drawings  differ  only  a  trifle  from  my  own 
and  I  had  practically  gone  as  far  as  he,  only  one  or 
two  points  were  suggested  to  me  by  his  diagram  of 
the  electrodes  resting  at  an  angle  on  the  porcelain 
plate.  The  cutting  of  the  teeth  in  the  soft  metal 
was  also  suggested  by  him.  But  I  had  thought  out 
other  points  that  were  essential." 

Then,  again,  Walter  kept  going  over  the  great 
advantage  it  would  be  to  him  if  this  discovery  were 
made  by  him  first.  He  knew  that  the  commercial 
value  of  any  real  improvement  in  city  lighting  was 
very  large.  There  was  money  for  him  in  this  dis- 
covery. And  Walter  was  growing  more  and  more 
restless  over  his  stewardship  and  the  burdens  it  in- 
volved. He  hated  the  drudgery  and  the  time  it 
took,  and  of  late  he  began  to  feel  quite  certain  that 
the  same  attitude  displayed  in  other  schools  was 
creeping  into  Burrton,  an  attitude  of  contempt  for 
the  working  student,  nothing  very  pronounced,  but 

66 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  57 

enough  to  make  him  feel  disagreeable  and  annoyed, 
for  he  was  a  finnicky  youth,  sensitive  to  a  great  de- 
gree and  with  the  taste  of  an  aristocrat  at  heart. 

"  I  don't  see  that  I  do  Bauer  any  harm  if  I  go 
ahead  and  make  a  model.  I'll  do  that  anyhow,"  he 
said  out  loud  at  last,  as  he  got  up  and  turned  on  his 
light.  And  then  he  saw  under  the  edge  of  his  door 
a  note  which  had  been  slipped  in  there. 

He  went  over,  picked  it  up,  opened  it,  and  found 
it  was  a  note  from  Bauer. 

"  My  Dear  Douglas : — Within  an  hour  after  leav- 
ing the  shop  to-night  I  had  a  telegram  calling  me 
home.  I  do  not  know  how  soon  I  shall  be  able  to  re- 
turn to  Burrton,  if  at  all.  Will  you  kindly  see  if 
I  left  any  of  my  apparatus  or  papers  on  my  table 
and  return  them  to  my  locker?  I  enclose  the  key 
with  this  note.  Thank  you. 

"  FELIX  BAUER." 

So  Bauer  was  going  to  be  away  indefinitely.  He 
might  not  come  back  at  all.  He  had  not  given  any 
reason  for  the  call  to  come  home,  but  Walter  re- 
membered one  remark  the  German  student  had  made 
one  day  which  led  him  to  believe  that  Bauer's  home 
life  was  unhappy  and  the  relations  between  his  father 
and  mother  were  unpleasant.  Suppose  he  never 
came  back.  Suppose  he  never  finished  his  investiga- 
tion of  the  lamp?  Suppose — there  was  a  number  of 
possibilities  to  suppose.  Why,  then  the  field  would 
be  open  to  him  and  he  could  £0  ahead  with  a  clear 


58  THE    HIGH   CALLING 

conscience.  But  could  he?  In  spite  of  all 
sophistry  and  special  pleading  with  himself  Walter 
knew  he  had  caught  the  idea  of  the  electrodes  from 
Bauer's  drawing,  which  suggested  the  secret.  How 
did  he  know  but  that  Bauer  had  discovered  it  as  in- 
dicated in  his  own  diagram  and  was  making  that 
preliminary  to  the  finished  lamp? 

There  was  one  honest  and  plain  way  out  for 
Walter.  He  could  write  to  Bauer  and  frankly  tell 
him  that  he  had  seen  his  drawings  and  had  received 
from  them  a  hint  for  the  discovery  and  ask  him  if 
he  were  willing  to  share  with  him,  Walter,  in  the 
result  if  the  lamp  proved  worth  while  financially. 
But  here  was  Walter's  weak  point.  He  was  proud 
of  his  technical  knowledge.  Already  it  was  con- 
ceded by  all  the  students  in  the  electrical  engineering 
department  that  Douglas  of  Milton  was  the  star. 
The  instructors  had  given  him  special  notice.  He 
had  already  made  one  or  two  very  valuable  and  orig- 
inal contributions  to  the  problems  that  faced  the 
shop  every  day.  But  nothing  he  had  so  far  done 
would  begin  to  compare  with  this  new  arc  light. 
The  thought  of  sharing  his  discovery  with  anyone 
else  touched  his  pride  in  its  most  sensitive  and  per- 
sonal spot. 

He  threshed  it  all  over  back  and  forth  and  when 
he  finally  went  to  bed  he  was  still  undecided  as  to  his 
course.  The  fact  is,  he  could  not  escape  all  the  time 
the  standard  he  had  been  trained  in  at  home.  If 
Paul  and  Esther  had  done  nothing  else  for  their 
children  they  had  certainly  done  this;  they  had  im- 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  59 

planted  in  their  minds  a  deep  and  strong  feeling  that 
one  of  the  things  to  be  most  desired  in  life  is  honesty ; 
clean,  frank,  wholesome  honesty,  free  from  cant  and 
hypocrisy  and  double  dealing.  And  Walter  knew  in 
his  heart  that  what  he  was  going  to  do  was  not 
honest  to  Bauer,  even  after  he  had  juggled  with  his 
conscience  and  proved  to  himself  that  Bauer  had  no 
real  rights  in  the  matter.  He  knew  perfectly  well 
that  the  German  student  did  have  rights  of  prior  dis- 
covery. No  amount  of  argument  or  defense  of  his 
own  discoveries  could  remove  that  fact. 

Nevertheless,  next  day  in  the  shop  after  he  had 
put  Bauer's  belongings,  including  the  paper  with  the 
drawings,  into  Bauer's  locker,  Walter  found  himself 
working  with  nervous  haste  over  his  model.  It  went 
together  with  wonderful  exactness  and  in  spite  of 
his  feeling  that  he  was  acting  the  part  of  a  miserable 
cheat,  he  was,  at  least,  during  a  part  of  the  time, 
in  a  glow  of  enthusiasm.  For  the  most  part  he 
worked  at  night,  when  he  was  least  liable  to  watch- 
ing from  the  other  fellows.  There  were  several  rea- 
sons why  he  could  do  this,  among  them  an  unusual 
interest  in  the  school  at  that  time  in  evening  func- 
tions which  drew  most  of  the  shop  workers  out. 

Walter  took  parts  of  his  model  up  to  his  room 
each  night  and  studied  them.  At  the  end  of  two 
weeks  he  had  completed  the  lamp  and  it  remained 
only  to  give  it  an  actual  test.  No  word  had  been 
received  from  Bauer,  and  inquiry  from  different  pro- 
fessors had  failed  to  discover  any  news  from  him. 
It  seemed  to  Walter  almost  certain  that  Bauer  would 


60  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

not  return,  and  each  day  of  his  absence  gave  Walter 
less  uneasiness,  if  not  an  actual  dulling  of  the  keen 
edge  of  his  conscience. 

The  day  before  he  planned  to  test  his  lamp  at 
the  shop,  Walter  received  another  letter  from  his 
mother,  one  part  of  which  annoyed  him  greatly.  His 
mother  wrote  chiding  him  good  naturedly  for  not 
sending  his  usual  weekly  letter.  In  fact,  since  his  dis- 
covery of  Bauer's  plan,  Walter  had  failed  to  write 
home,  for  the  first  time  since  coming  to  Burrton.  He 
could  not  account  for  this  failure  except  on  the 
ground  that  he  was  too  busy. 

But  his  mother  wrote  without  any  knowledge  of 
all  this,  telling  him  bits  of  news  that  she  thought 
he  would  most  want  to  know. 

"  Your  father  has  been  asked  by  the  Citizens' 
Committee,  to  let  his  name  go  on  the  primaries  for 
senator  from  the  Fifth  district.  I  have  my  doubts 
about  the  wisdom  of  a  newspaper  editor  going  into 
politics,  but  your  father,  while  he  had  some  hesita- 
tion, has  finally  agreed  to  let  his  name  go  down.  So 
now  we  can  expect  lively  times  in  the  Douglas  family 
until  after  election  next  fall. 

"  Helen  has  two  more  beaus,  one  of  them  ten  years 
older  than  herself.  I  am  not  making  fun  of  this, 
as  you  know,  for  I  have  tried  to  teach  you  all  that 
the  love  part  of  life  is  in  some  ways  the  most  serious 
as  well  as  the  most  happy  of  all  your  experiences. 
Helen  has  good  sense  when  it  comes  to  a  final  decis- 
ion on  anything.  I  am  not  afraid  for  her. 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  61 

"  Louis  is  better  than  he  has  been  for  a  long  time. 
His  eyes  are  stronger  and  his  headaches  have  almost 
ceased.  He  seems  to  enjoy  his  studies  this  term  and 
is  making  progress.  We  all  feel  pleased  of  course. 
Louis  has  had  an  offer  from  his  uncle  to  go  into  the 
store,  but  your  father  and  I  would  much  prefer  to 
keep  him  in  school  if  his  health  will  allow.  We  are 
ambitious  for  all  of  you  and  want  you  to  have  an 
education  and  do  in  the  world  what  you  are  best 
fitted  to  do. 

"  We  want  you  to  come  home  for  Christmas. 
And  from  the  different  bits  you  have  written  about 
your  German  friend  Bauer  we  have  been  wondering 
if  he  could  not  come  with  you.  I  understand  from 
one  of  your  letters  that  he  is  rather  a  lonesome  fel- 
low, without  many  friends.  If  he  is  not  going  to  his 
own  home  at  Christmas  time,  give  him  a  good,  strong 
invitation  from  father  and  me  to  come  with  you. 
You  know  we  have  never  been  separated  at  the  holi- 
day season,  and  it  will  be  my  treat  to  pay  your  ex- 
penses home  this  time  unless  you  make  a  new  arc 
light  and  get  it  patented  and  make  a  lot  of  money 
out  of  it.  We  are  all  interested  in  the  light  and 
speak  of  it  almost  every  day.  Your  father  was  say- 
ing this  morning  that  our  street  lights  are  a  dis- 
grace to  Milton.  There  is  a  citizens'  war  going  on 
at  present  over  the  situation  and  every  number  of 
the  News  contains  letters  from  angry  taxpayers 
calling  the  city  government  to  account  for  the 
wretched  nature  of  the  street  lighting.  If  you 
should  happen  to  discover  an  economical  and  satis- 


63  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

factory  city  lamp,  the  people  of  Milton  would  be 
ready  now  to  compel  the  council  to  purchase  and 
install  it.  Of  course  this  all  sounds  rather  like  a 
story,  but  stranger  things  have  happened  in  the  his- 
tory of  inventions.  And  if  you  should  happen  to 
be  the  fortunate  discoverer,  we  would  be  very  proud 
and  happy. 

"  Don't  forget  to  make  the  invitation  to  Mr. 
Bauer  as  hearty  as  you  can.  I  am  anxious  to  see 
you,  as  all  of  us  are. 

"  YOUR  LOVING  MOTHER." 

The  things  which  annoyed  Walter  in  this  letter 
were,  first  of  all,  his  mother's  invitation  to  Bauer. 
Of  course  if  he  did  not  return  to  school,  that  would 
be  the  end  of  it.  But  if  he  should  return,  why,  then, 
under  the  peculiar  conditions  that  existed  it  would 
be  more  than  embarrassing  for  Walter  to  bring 
Bauer  home  with  him.  And  to  add  to  his  annoyance 
Walter  began  to  feel  hard  toward  the  German 
student,  as  if  Bauer  had  done  him  a  wrong.  It  is, 
of  course,  true  that  one  of  the  surest  ways  to  ac- 
quire a  hatred  of  anyone  is  first  of  all  to  do  him  an 
injustice.  Having  already  wronged  Bauer  in  steal- 
ing his  ideas,  Walter  was  fast  entering  on  the  sec- 
ond stage  of  his  relations  to  him  and  beginning  to 
feel  hateful  toward  him. 

The  other  annoyance  caused  by  his  mother's  let- 
ter was  due  to  the  fact  that  in  her  ignorance  of  the 
situation  she  was  all  unconsciously  strengthening  his 
temptation  to  complete  the  light  and  get  it  before 


THE    HIGH   CALLING  63 

the  public  as  his  own  as  soon  as  possible.  The 
street-lighting  conditions  in  Milton  were  duplicated 
in  hundreds  of  municipalities  all  over  the  country. 
There  was  no  doubt  in  Walter's  mind  that  the  first 
really  successful  economical  lamp  offered  the  public 
would  find  a  quick  and  remunerative  sale.  With  a 
growing  excitement  he  began  to  see  the  great  prob- 
abilities before  his  invention.  And  all  that  his 
mother  had  written  simply  tended  to  push  him  on  to 
complete  his  work  before  Bauer  could  return  and 
make  the  necessary  discovery  for  himself. 

He  was  vexed  and  annoyed  to  a  degree  he  had 
never  before  experienced.  And  he  knew  deep  down 
in  his  heart  that  it  was  because  he  was  acting  a  dis- 
honourable part  toward  the  absent  classmate.  He 
began  to  lose  sleep  over  it,  and  grew  nervous  and 
exceedingly  unhappy.  On  the  one  hand,  his  home 
training  had  made  him  sensitive  to  moral  standards. 
He  would  not  have  dared  to  write  to  his  mother 
about  the  affair  to  ask  her  advice  as  to  what  he  ought 
to  do,  because  he  knew  without  writing  what  she 
would  say.  On  the  other  hand,  his  ambition  goaded 
him  to  ignore  what  it  called  a  technicality,  tried  to 
befog  the  issue  by  whispering  that  Bauer  could  not 
succeed  without  putting  into  the  lamp  the  things 
which  Walter  had  discovered  already  himself,  and 
constantly  insinuated  that  even  if  he  had  not  hap- 
pened to  see  Bauer's  diagram,  Walter  would  prob- 
ably have  worked  it  out  in  a  day  or  two  anyhow. 

He  replied  to  his  mother's  letter  briefly,  saying 
he  was  unsually  busy  and  adding  that  he  did  not 


64  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

think  Bauer  could  come  with  him  because  he  had 
been  called  home  and  would  not  in  all  likelihood  re- 
turn to  Burrton.  He  said  nothing  in  this  letter 
about  the  lamp;  he  could  not  bring  himself  to  men- 
tion it.  And  he  knew  when  he  posted  the  letter  that 
the  tone  of  it  would  make  his  mother  ask  questions 
because  it  was  so  different  from  the  enthusiastic, 
jolly  letters  he  had  written  before. 

It  was  during  this  week  that  he  fixed  on  a  certain 
evening  to  make  a  practical  test  of  his  lamp.  He 
had  guarded  his  secret  successfully.  Not  a  soul, 
including  both  instructors  and  students,  knew  the 
special  work  he  had  been  doing.  Among  the  great 
number  of  special  and  changing  experiments  going 
on  in  the  shop  it  had  not  been  difficult  to  keep  his 
discovery  to  himself. 

He  chose  a  night  when  a  great  social  event  was 
occurring  in  hopes  that  he  might  have  the  shop  to 
himself.  There  were  a  few  enthusiastic  specialists 
who  did  considerable  night  work,  but  on  this  par- 
ticular evening  they  went  out  early  and  by  nine 
o'clock  he  found  himself  alone.  The  power  which 
lighted  the  town  of  Burrton  was  the  same  as  that  in 
use  at  the  school  and  was  in  operation  day  and  night. 
The  conditions  seemed  absolutely  favorable  to  a  test 
of  his  invention,  and  by  ten  o'clock  Walter  had  made 
all  connections  and  brought  his  electrodes  into  posi- 
tion. 

The  only  question  with  him  was  whether  the  heat 
of  the  arc  would  melt  the  soft  metal  teeth  at  the 
right  time  and  with  even  regularity.  He  was  pale 


THE    HIGH   CALLING  65 

and  nervous  with  the  tension  of  the  work,  his  loss  of 
sleep  and  his  goading  of  conscience,  and  when  the 
carbons  started  to  glow  with  the  familiar  hiss,  he 
started  back  as  if  someone  had  come  in,  and  looked 
around  the  shop  fearfully. 

Then  he  laughed  hysterically  and  turned  again  to 
his  machine.  His  whole  attention  was  now  fastened 
upon  it,  and  with  the  true  inventor's  ecstasy  he  for- 
got Bauer,  forgot  his  mother,  forgot  that  he  was  at 
the  center  of  a  great  moral  tragedy  for  his  own  soul, 
forgot  there  was  a  God,  and  a  judgment  day  and 
any  such  things  as  conscience  or  remorse,  or  injus- 
tice. 

His  whole  soul  flung  itself  on  that  point  of  dazzling 
light  and  the  soft  metal  teeth  which  he  had  coupled 
in  a  strip  to  the  electrodes.  He  watched  it,  fascin- 
ated and  fearful.  He  saw  the  tooth  begin  to  glow 
to  a  red,  then  to  a  white,  heat  and  then  it  melted 
softly  away,  letting  the  electrodes  fall  gently,  keep- 
ing the  points  of  their  position  in  perfect  place 
while  the  second  tooth  slipped  down  in  turn  to  be 
transformed  into  a  soft  and  yielding  point. 

The  lamp  worked !  It  was  a  practical  success ! 
It  had  stood  the  test!  He  did  not  know  how  long 
he  had  been  in  the  shop  or  how  long  he  had  been 
watching  the  mechanism.  He  switched  off  the 
power,  and  adjusted  a  part  of  the  scissors-coupling. 
Then  he  turned  on  the  current  again  and  with  the 
same  feeling  of  fascination  watched  the  softening 
and  dissolving  of  the  metal  tooth. 

A  noise  of  a  door  opening  aroused  him  and  he 


66  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

looked  up.     Someone  had  come  in,  and  was  walk- 
ing directly  toward  his  bench. 

The  glare  of  the  lamp  blinded  him,  and  his  eyes 
had  to  become  adjusted  to  the  dimness  as  he  turned 
his  back  on  the  lamp.  But  when  the  person  was  ten 
feet  away  he  recognised  in  a  moment  the  face  of 
Bauer,  as  he  came  walking  slowly  toward  him. 


CHAPTER  V 

WALTER'S  mind  worked  with  what  he  after- 
ward described  to  himself  as  an  unquestion- 
ing obedience  to  a  first  impulse,  at  the  centre  of  which 
was  an  instantaneous  fear  of  discovery.  Before 
Bauer  had  taken  another  step  nearer  him  he  had 
turned,  switched  off  the  power  from  the  lamp,  and 
snatched  up  a  hammer  from  his  bench. 

With  one  blow  he  smashed  the  electrodes  and  then, 
as  if  made  frantic  over  the  act,  he  struck  at  the 
mechanism  until  it  was  a  heap  of  bent  and  twisted 
wires  and  metal.  It  lay  on  his  bench  in  a  tangled 
mass  and  he  stooped  over  it  and  began  to  sweep  it 
off  into  the  refuse  box.  Bauer  had  not  yet  said  a 
word.  Only  with  the  first  blow  of  the  hammer  he 
had  ej  aculated  "  Ach ! "  As  Walter  was  flinging 
bits  of  the  lamp  into  the  box  the  German  student 
came  up  and  stood  near,  looking  at  Walter  in  as- 
tonishment. 

"What  is  the  matter?" 

Walter  simply  muttered  some  unintelligible  thing. 
He  was,  to  tell  the  truth,  tremendously  excited,  dis- 
turbed, overwhelmed  by  Bauer's  return  at  this  par- 
ticular time. 

"  I've — I've  been  experimenting  and  have  failed," 
he  finally  managed  to  say,  stammering  out  the  words 

67 


68  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

with  great  difficulty.  He  was  terrified  to  think 
Bauer  might  read  in  his  face  the  whole  story. 

But  Felix  Bauer  was  one  of  the  most  simple- 
hearted  and  unsuspicious  souls  that  ever  lived.  If 
he  had  not  been,  some  of  the  things  that  are  going 
to  be  true  of  this  story  could  never  have  happened. 
He  looked  at  Walter  and  then  at  the  broken  mechan- 
ism and  simply  said :  "  I  am  sorry  you  have  failed. 
But  it  is  nothing  by  the  side  of  dishonor." 

And  then  for  the  first  time  Walter  looked  openly 
and  squarely  into  Bauer's  face  and  saw  tragedy 
there.  The  incandescent  light  over  the  bench  was 
not  a  strong  one.  But  Bauer  was  close  to  him  and 
Walter  quickly  saw  that  he  was  not  thinking  of  what 
Walter  had  done,  was  not  going  to  ask  him  any 
questions  about  it,  because  some  other  thing  was 
gripping  him,  some  other  thing  so  strong  and  in- 
sistent and  sorrowful  that  it  took  possession  of  him 
and  dominated  him.  Walter's  action  had  already 
passed  out  of  his  mind  as  simply  an  incident  con- 
nected with  some  disappointing  experiment,  and  he 
was  looking  at  Walter  with  an  appeal  in  his  great, 
sad  eyes  which  smote  Walter  like  a  blow  in  the  dark. 

He  felt  almost  faint  and  instinctively  he  sat  down. 
Bauer  had  gone  over  to  his  own  desk  and  stood  lean- 
ing against  it. 

"  I  ought  not  to  come  in  here  and  annoy  you  at 
this  time,"  he  said  in  his  slow,  almost  stammering 
manner,  "  but  I — you  see,  somehow  I  felt  so  lonely, 
so  afraid,  when  I  got  off  the  train  to-night,  that  I 
could  not  help  the  desire  to  see  you,  and  they  told 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  69 

me  you  must  be  in  the  shop.  Heine  says  in  the 
Lorelei,  you  know,  *  Ich  weiss  nicht  was  soil  es  be- 
deuten,  das  Ich  so  traurig  bin? '  But  I  do  know 
why  I  am  so  sad.  It  is  disgrace  which  has  befallen 
me,  such  deep  disgrace  to  my  home,  my  father " 

He  stopped  and  looked  at  Walter  timidly  as  if 
not  quite  sure  how  his  confidence  might  be  received. 
Walter  sat  with  his  head  bowed,  and  smitten  into 
silence.  He  did  not  know  what  to  say,  but  Bauer 
probably  took  his  silence  for  quiet  sympathy,  being 
of  that  nature  himself  and  mistaking  Walter's  at- 
titude for  earnest  attention. 

"  My  father — you  will  understand  what  it  means 
— has  deserted  my  mother,  and  she  has  run  away, 
the  home  destroyed  is  to  be,  and  the  disgrace — Oh, 
it  is  greater,  more  than  I  can  endure,  I  said  as  I 
was  obliged  to  come  back  for  my  things.  It  is  more 
than  I  can  bear  alone,  and  you  are  so  strong,  so 
principled." 

Walter  cowered  in  his  chair,  appalled  at  the  thing 
that  was  happening  to  him.  Here  was  a  soul  in  des- 
perate need  who  had  come  to  fling  itself  on  him  for 
companionship  and  courage,  and  he  with  his  own  soul 
stained  with  deception  for  the  love  of  fame  and 
money!  He  would  have  cried  out;  he  wanted  to, 
but  Bauer  went  on,  now  he  had  broken  over  his  nat- 
ural reserve.  He  eagerly  awaited  Walter's  sym- 
pathy, and  his  spirit  hungered  for  light  in  his  dark- 
ness. 

"  Yes,  you  see,  I  don't  know  anyone  here,  and 
your  action  about  the  story  telling  in  your  room — 


70  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

I  heard  of  that — I  counted  it  a  brave  thing  to  do. 
And,  oh,  I  am  so  hungry  for  a  friend !  I  need  one ; 
do  you  think  you  could  be  friend  to  me,  do  you, 
Douglas  ?  Friend  to  a  disgraced  family  ?  It  is  ask- 
ing a  great  deal,  but  I  feel  the  dark,  the  dark — it  is 
so  heavy  for  me " 

Bauer,  looking  at  Walter  in  his  almost  animal- 
like  appeal,  saw  at  last  that  there  was  something  he 
did  not  undertsand  in  Walter's  attitude.  Walter's 
mind  was  not  confused  by  the  strange  situation,  it 
was  clear  and  vibrating  with  feeling.  But  it  was  a 
long  time  before  he  could  speak.  How  could  he  tell 
Bauer  the  truth  now?  Why  not  let  him  remain  in 
ignorance  of  the  purpose  to  steal  his  ideas?  Noth- 
ing had  been  done  so  far  to  really  wrong  him.  The 
lamp  was  destroyed.  Walter  would  not  make  an- 
other, and  the  basis  of  a  possible  friendship,  such  as 
Bauer  needed,  could  be  established  without  any  ex- 
planation or  foolish  confession. 

But  somehow  Walter  could  not  rest  with  that 
suggestion.  He  felt  that  if  Bauer  had  his  friendship 
it  must  rest  on  truth  and  a  frank  outspoken  revela- 
tion of  the  character  of  the  soul  he  was  appealing 
to  for  help. 

It  was  very  still  in  the  big  shop  when  Walter 
finally  looked  up  and  said  to  Bauer: 

"  I  am  not  worthy  of  your  friendship.  I  am  not 
what  you  think  I  am." 

"  Not  worthy?  Not "  Bauer  looked  at  him 

in  amazement. 

"  No,  not  worthy.     Look !  "  Walter  spoke  fast  now 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  71 

as  if  afraid  he  might  fail  in  courage.  "  Open  your 
locker!  Here!  here  is  the  key!  You  left  it  with 
me." 

He  thrust  the  key  at  Bauer,  and  Bauer  turned 
around,  and  under  the  pressure  of  Walter's  look  and 
voice  opened  his  locker  and  stood  in  front  of  it  hold- 
ing on  to  the  door. 

"  There !  That  paper !  Your  plan,  your  drawing 
of  the  lamp !  Open  it.  Let  me  show " 

Bauer  obeyed  mechanically.  Walter  got  up  and 
stood  by  Bauer's  table.  Bauer  slowly  unfolded  the 
paper.  His  look  showed  he  had  almost  forgotten  it. 

"  There !  See !  You  were  on  the  right  track ! 
The  soft  metal  teeth  coupled  to  the  electrode! 
Don't  you  see?  "  Bauer's  face  began  to  glow  for 
the  first  time  that  evening,  for  he,  too,  like  Walter, 
had  the  inventor's  sensitive  hunger.  "  You  left  the 
paper  here  the  night  you  were  called  home.  I  saw 
it  and  copied  it  before  I  put  it  back.  I  made  the 
model  and  it  works.  That  is  it  there,"  and  Walter 
pointed  to  the  stuff  on  the  table  and  in  the  refuse 
box.  "Do  you  understand?  I  stole  your  plans. 
I  was  going  to  get  out  the  lamp  without  telling  you 
if  you  had  not  come  back.  And  I  am  the  person 
you  want  for  a  friend.  Am  I  worthy?  Do  you  un- 
derstand now? 

A  dull  red  spot  began  to  creep  up  into  the  Ger- 
man student's  face.  He  was  still  holding  the  locker 
door  with  one  hand.  His  eye  travelled  from  the  dia- 
gram to  Walter  and  then  back  again.  Walter  stood 
very  erect,  his  head  thrown  back  almost  defiantly 


72  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

now  that  he  had  made  his  confession,  and  he  was  ab- 
solutely in  the  dark  as  to  the  effect  of  it  on  Bauer. 
He  would  and  could  not  blame  him  for  being  angry. 
And  he  was  angry  for  a  moment.  But  only  a  mo- 
ment. Then  his  great  brown  eyes  softened  and  he 
said  in  a  quiet,  gentle  way  that  moved  Walter  more 
than  any  burst  of  passion  could  have  done: 

"  I  am  not  a  judge  for  you.  While  on  the  way 
home  I  suddenly  thought  out  the  secret  of  the  metal 
teeth.  See!  I  have  it  here."  He  took  out  of  his 
pocket  a  paper  and  opening  it  spread  it  out  on 
Walter's  desk.  Walter  saw  in  a  second's  glance  that 
Bauer  had  discovered  the  working  basis  for  the  suc- 
cessful light.  "  And  I  was  going  to  work  on  the 
plan  when  I  came  back.  But  all  my  trouble  drove 
it  away.  I  lost  my  ambition.  And  I  understand 
what  you  did.  I  might  have  done  the  same.  But 
still,  Douglas,  do  you  know,  I  don't  care.  I — I  am 
hungry  for  a  friend  just  like  you.  What  you  have 
said  does  not  change  anything.  What  difference 
does  that  make?  That  is  not  trouble,  not  for  me." 

Walter  looked  at  him  a  moment  and  then  in  the 
reaction  which  was  really  the  taking  off  of  the  strain 
of  weeks,  he  put  his  head  between  his  hands  and 
sobbed.  Bauer  did  not  venture  to  say  anything. 
When  Walter  could  control  himself  he  reached  out 
his  hand.  Bauer  took  it,  and  in  that  grasp  the  two 
young  men  understood  each  other  for  life.  I  think 
each  gave  as  much  as  he  took.  The  sacred  compact 
they  sealed  in  the  big  empty  shop  that  night  was 
made  with  few  words,  but  it  was  never  disturbed  nor 


THE    HIGH   CALLING  78 

broken  in  after  years.  And  each  one  of  them 
realised  something  of  the  depth  and  joy  of  real 
friendship.  Do  you?  Does  anybody?  Our  human 
friendships,  when  they  are  real  and  permanent,  are 
the  finest  and  richest  possessions  of  our  lives.  Pity 
we  treat  them  so  lightly  and  measure  them  so 
tamely. 

That  same  night  Bauer  in  his  simple  manner  told 
Walter  something  more  of  his  home  troubles,  enough 
to  give  Walter  a  glimpse  into  the  real  sorrow  of  his 
heart.  Walter  in  his  turn  told  in  part  the  story  of 
his  temptation  and  of  his  struggles  and  tortures  to 
escape.  To  this  Bauer  listened  with  a  faint  smile 
and  with  perfect  understanding. 

In  the  days  that  followed,  they  agreed  to  con- 
struct the  lamp  between  them  and  share  in  the  prof- 
its from  it.  And  when  they  began  work  on  the  mech- 
anism each  found  that  the  other  had  discovered 
little  improvements  which  were  necessary  to  the  best 
construction,  finally  producing  a  lamp  far  more  per- 
fect and  practical  than  Walter's  first  attempt. 

The  day  after  that  memorable  scene  with  Bauer 
in  the  shop  Walter  wrote  home  a  long  and  exuberant 
letter,  a  part  of  which  we  may  read. 

"  Mother,  I  can't  begin  to  tell  you  what  a  relief 
I  have  experienced  since  I  told  Bauer  all  about  it. 
I  believe  I  had  a  little  taste  of  hell  for  a  while  and  I 
don't  want  to  go  through  it  again.  Bauer  and  I 
are  the  best  friends  you  ever  saw.  He  is  just  the 
opposite  of  me.  I'm  impulsive  and  quick  and  get 


74  THE    HIGH   CALLING 

mad  quick  and  all  that.  You  know  all  about  it,  but 
he  is  slow  and  calm  and  talks  only  a  little  at  a  time. 
He  is  not  what  you  would  call  handsome,  but  he  has 
the  most  beautiful  brown  eyes  I  ever  saw.  If  I  was 
a  girl  I  would  think  he  was  handsome  because 
his  eyes  are.  He  has  told  me  a  good  deal 
about  his  home  life  and  I  have  told  him  something 
about  ours,  and  he  has  asked  some  questions.  And, 
oh  yes,  he  is  coming  home  with  me  for  the  holidays. 
At  first  he  refused,  but  when  I  told  him  how  much 
you  wanted  him  to  come  and  how  lonesome  it  would 
be  for  him  here  he  consented  to  come.  I  hope  you 
will  all  like  him.  Helen  will  probably  think  he  is 
odd  and  solemn,  but  I  hope  she  will  be  kind  and  all 
of  us  can  make  him  feel  at  home. 

"  We  are  working  on  the  lamp  together  and  it 
is  almost  finished.  We  are  keeping  the  construction 
of  it  a  secret  because  we  want  to  spring  it  on  An- 
derson, the  foreman.  I  haven't  told  you  about  him. 
He  is  all  up  on  electricity,  knows  as  much  about  it 
as  Edison,  at  least  he  almost  says  so  at  times,  and 
he  really  does  know  a  lot,  but  he  is  the  one  teacher 
in  the  whole  bunch  I  don't  like.  There  is  a  manner 
about  him  that  makes  you  feel  he  has  on  a  dress  suit 
and  a  stovepipe  hat  all  the  time.  I  heard  the  other 
day  he  is  related  to  the  Van  Shaws,  a  cousin  or  some- 
thing of  the  steel  magnate  at  Pittsburg.  I  have 
never  had  any  trouble  with  Anderson,  but  I  felt  re- 
lieved the  other  day  to  hear  that  I  was  not  the  only 
fellow  in  the  school  that  he  ruffled.  He  is  mighty 
unpopular.  Bauer  and  I  are  going  to  make  sure  of 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  75 

our  lamp  first  and  then  give  Anderson  a  look  at  it. 
If  the  thing  goes  as  well  as  we  expect  I  don't  know 
how  much  there  will  be  in  it  for  us.  But  if  it  is  any- 
thing like  what  I  expect,  no  more  stewardship  for 
me.  I'm  tired  of  waiting  on  the  swells,  and  since  the 
Van  Shaw  episode  I've  not  had  a  very  pleasant  time 
with  some  of  them.  You  see,  mother,  there  is  a 
crowd  here  that  seems  to  think  it  is  necessary  to  be 
coarse  and  fast  in  order  to  be  men.  The  more 
money  they  can  spend,  the  more  beer  they  can  drink, 
the  more  chorus  girls'  photographs  they  can  get  to 
paste  up  in  their  rooms,  the  more  tobacco  pipes  they 
can  display  over  and  under  their  mantels,  the  more 
slang  and  indecency  they  can  learn,  the  more  college 
atmosphere  they  think  they  are  creating.  I  wonder 
sometimes  why  the  professors  don't  seem  to  care 
about  the  morals  of  us  students.  We  never  hear 
anything  in  the  class  room  or  the  shop  except  the 
technical  parts  of  our  studies.  I  haven't  a  single 
teacher  at  Burrton  that  I  would  go  to  if  I  were  in 
real  trouble  and  I  never  would  think  of  going  to 
President  Davis  about  anything.  He  is  a  great 
scholar  and  hustler  for  money,  but  I  should  hate  to 
have  to  go  to  him  for  advice  or  sympathy. 

"  Well,  I  have  made  the  letter  long  enough.  I'm 
getting  a  little  homesick  to  see  you  all,  and  looking 
forward  to  the  holidays.  Expect  me  home  with  a 
trunk  full  of  money  from  the  sale  of  the  lamp.  If 
we  get  it  patented  we  may  either  sell  the  thing  out- 
right, or  Bauer  thinks  we  can  better  make  profitable 
terms  with  some  good  electrical  manufacturing  firm 


76  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

like  Madison  Brooks  &  Co.,  New  York.     Love  to 
all.  Walter." 

Mrs.  Douglas  answered  him  at  once  and  in  the 
course  of  her  letter  expressed  her  delight  at  the 
happy  outcome  of  Walter's  experience  with  the  lamp 
and  with  Bauer's  friendship. 

"  I  don't  know  when  you  have  given  your  mother 
more  happiness,  boy.  I  was  so  happy  I  cried  all  the 
forenoon  while  your  father  and  Helen  and  Louis 
were  out  of  the  house.  I  am  delighted  that  you 
have  made  a  friend.  Do  you  know  what  that  means  ? 
If  Bauer  is  what  you  think  he  is,  you  and  he  have 
something  more  than  a  trunkful  of  money.  A  man 
or  a  woman  can  live  to  be  fifty  years  old  without 
gaining  more  than  two  or  three  such  friends  as 
Bauer.  So  what  has  really  happened  to  you  is  a 
splendid  thing.  And  I  hope  you  will  feel  very  rich 
indeed.  Of  course  we  would  all  be  pleased  if  the 
lamp  turns  out  to  be  a  success.  But  I  suppose  you 
will  make  up  your  mind  to  be  ready  for  anything. 
There  are  many  slips  between  models  and  patents, 
and  it  will  be  well  for  both  of  you  not  to  buy  ex- 
pensive trips  around  the  world  on  the  strength  of 
your  discovery  until  the  money  is  really  in  hand. 

"  Louis  is  giving  us  some  trouble  lately.  He  is 
very  slow  in  his  studies,  especially  his  English. 
Your  father,  I  think,  feels  annoyed  by  it,  because  he 
wants  Louis  to  be  literary.  But  Louis's  English 
teacher  brought  to  your  father  the  other  day  a  com- 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  77 

position  Louis  had  written  on  the  Tuberculosis  Out- 
door Hospital  recently  established  at  the  Mansfield 
farm  by  the  State  Board  of  Health.  Miss  Bar- 
rows, the  teacher,  is  a  very  practical  person  and  she 
went  out  to  this  tuberculosis  station  with  a  section 
of  her  class  in  English,  and  told  the  members  to  keep 
their  eyes  open  and  on  their  return  to  the  school  to 
write  one  hundred  words  about  what  they  had  seen. 
And  this  is  Louis's  contribution  to  the  symposium: 

"  *  Tuberculosis  was  started  in  1884,  by  Dr. 
Trudeau,  who  had  it  in  the  Adirondacks.  Although 
consumption  is  not  inherited  and  does  not  belong 
in  the  climate  it  is  getting  very  popular.  The  sleep- 
ing bags  are  very  useful  to  the  consumptive  people 
because  they  can  keep  their  heads  out  and  put  the 
rest  of  their  bodies  into  them.  I  saw  the  germs. 
It  is  a  big  white  ball  with  blue  spots  on  it.  I  think 
it  would  be  fine  to  sleep  in  one  of  those  beds  with 
the  head  inside  and  the  lungs  outside.' 

"  Well,  when  your  father  read  this,  he  simply 
choked.  In  fact  we  all  choked,  and  Helen  who  hap- 
pened to  get  hold  of  it  somehow,  just  screamed. 
Poor  Louis  was  mad  at  every  one  of  us  and  especially 
at  Miss  Barrows  when  he  heard  she  had  taken  his  ac- 
count to  his  father.  At  first  your  father  thought 
Louis  was  trying  to  be  funny  at  the  expense  of  the 
English  department  in  the  high  school.  But  he 
wasn't.  He  was  in  dead  earnest,  and  doing  his  best. 
I  tell  your  father  that  it  isn't  fair  to  ridicule  Louis. 
Ridicule  is  a  dangerous  form  of  criticism  and  Louis 
is  very  sensitive.  I  don't  blame  him  for  saying  that 


78  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

the  teacher  ought  not  to  make  fun  of  him  when  he 
is  trying  to  get  his  lessons.  He  fairly  hates  some 
of  his  teachers  because  they  use  sarcastic  or  ironical 
remarks  about  him  in  the  presence  of  the  whole 
school.  It  seems  strange  to  me  that  any  teacher 
will  do  that,  especially  in  the  case  of  a  boy  like  Louis. 
They  defend  themselves  by  saying  it  is  the  only  way 
to  wake  up  the  students  or  shame  them  into  doing 
good  work.  But  I  believe  they  are  wrong  in  their 
methods  with  boys  like  Louis  and  I  am  going  to  talk 
with  them  about  it  for  his  sake. 

"  We  will  welcome  Bauer  with  you  at  the  holidays. 
He  will  feel  at  home  with  us  if  your  mother  has  any- 
thing to  do  about  it.  We  all  anticipate  his  com- 
ing. If  you  are  a  little  homesick  to  see  us  we  are 
all  more  than  a  little  eager  to  see  you.  I  pray  the 
good  God  to  keep  you  pure  and  true.  Lovingly, 

"  MOTHER." 

Two  weeks  after  this  and  two  weeks  before  the 
Christmas  holidays,  Walter  and  Bauer  had  com- 
pleted their  lamp  and  given  it  a  test.  It  was  more 
perfect  by  far  than  Walter's  model.  It  worked  with 
a  practical  certainty  that  left  no  doubt  in  their 
minds  that  unless  some  unforeseen  factor  came  in  to 
change  conditions  they  had  a  workable,  economic 
mechanism  which  was  automatic  and  durable. 

Within  a  day  or  two  they  decided  to  let  Anderson 
into  the  secret  and  Walter  asked  him  to  come  into 
the  shop  at  night  to  see  the  result  of  some  special 
original  work.  This  was  a  common  request  and  the 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  79 

foreman  simply  made  his  engagement  at  the  hour 
assigned,  and  when  the  hour  came  he  went  in  and 
w'atched  Walter  and  Bauer  bring  out  the  lamp  and 
make  the  necessary  connections.  Anderson  had  re- 
spect for  Walter's  ability,  recognising  in  him  the 
brightest  mind  for  electricity  that  Burrton  had  ever 
seen  in  a  student.  He  stood  by  silently  at  first 
while  Walter  in  considerable  excitement  and  some 
evident  pride  did  the  explaining.  But  when  the 
light  started  in  the  arc  and  the  brilliant  glow  of  it 
began  to  fling  out  its  dazzling  shafts  through  the 
shop  the  professor  started  forward,  a  look  of  as- 
tonishment came  over  his  face  and  he  asked  Walter 
a  question,  so  unexpected,  that  Walter  turned  pale 
and  looked  first  at  Anderson  and  then  at  Bauer  in 
blind  wonder  and  a  great  sinking  of  heart. 


CHAPTER  VI 

DIDN'T  you  know  that  this  lamp  has  already 
been  made  and  patent  applied  for  by  Gambrich 
of  New  York?  " 

"No!     When?" 

"Within  the  last  week.     Wait.     I'll  show  you." 

Anderson  went  over  to  his  own  desk  at  the  end 
of  the  shop.  In  the  few  minutes  he  was  gone,  Walter 
and  Bauer  exchanged  questions. 

"Do  you  suppose  that's  true?" 

"  Doesn't  seem  possible,  does  it?  If  it  is,  our 
cake  is  dough." 

"Anderson  seemed  pleased  when  he  announced  the 
fact,  if  it  is  one,"  said  Walter  bitterly. 

"  It  may  not  be  true,  you  know,"  said  Bauer 
hopefully. 

Anderson  had  come  back  in  time  to  hear  the  last 
sentence. 

"It  is  true,  though,  young  man.     See." 

He  had  the  last  copy  of  the  Electrical  News,  and 
it  was  open  at  an  illustrated  page. 

He  laid  it  down  on  Walter's  bench  and  he  and 
Bauer  eagerly  bent  over  it. 

Almost  the  first  glance  revealed  the  fact  that  the 
lamp  described  in  the  paper  was  identical  with  their 
own  and  application  for  a  patent  had  been  made 

80 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  81 

within  ten  days.  The  account  of  the  discovery, 
moreover,  made  the  date  earlier  than  the  discovery 
made  by  Walter. 

"  You  see,  don't  you,"  said  Anderson.  "  Gambrich 
has  exactly  the  same  device  of  metal  teeth  coupled 
to  one  electrode.  It's  an  ingenious  device  and  you 
fellows  have  certainly  great  credit  for  thinking  it 
out  almost  simultaneously  with  Gambrich." 

"  According  to  this  account,  our  lamp  was  made 
before  Gambrich's.  Does  that  give  him  priority  of 
invention  ?  "  asked  Walter  eagerly. 

Anderson  shrugged  his  shoulders. 

'*  Priority  of  manufacture  does  not  legally;  cut 
any  figure  by  the  side  of  priority  of  invention.  You 
might  be  able  to  prove  that  you  had  made  the  lamp 
before  Gambrich  made  his,  but  that  would  not  help 
you  any  if  he  invented  his  arrangement  first,  long  be- 
fore you  made  your  lamp." 

"Is  that  really  strict  justice?"  said  Bauer 
slowly. 

"  It  is  law,"  said  Anderson  grimly,  "  and  you 
must  remember  that  law  and  justice  are  not  in  every 
case  synonymous.  I'm  sorry  for  you  fellows. 
There's  a  lot  of  money  in  that  invention  for  the 
manufacturers  of  the  lamp,  and  considerable  for  the 
inventor  if  he  knows  how  to  make  terms." 

"  Do  you  mean/'  asked  Walter  gloomily,  "  that 
really  we  have  no  right  at  all  with  what  we  have 
made?" 

"  Don't  you  see  you  haven't  ?  What  can  you  do  ? 
Ask  any  lawyer,  if  you  don't  believe  me." 


82  THE    HIGH   CALLING 

Anderson  spoke  somewhat  testily  as  he  started  to 
go  away. 

"  I  believe  you're  glad  we  missed  this  oppor- 
tunity," said  Walter  angrily.  He  was  tremendously 
discouraged  over  the  event  and  could  not  control 
his  feelings. 

Anderson  grew  very  red  and  turned  on  Walter  in 
a  rage. 

"I  don't  mind  saying  I  am  glad  your  pride  has 
had  a  tumble.  You  have  been  unbearable  for  some 
time.  Maybe  this  will  teach  you  a  lesson.  There 
are  people  in  the  world  who  know  a  little  about 
electricity  as  well  as  yourself." 

All  of  which  was  not  calculated  to  sweeten  Wal- 
ter's sense  of  defeat  or  make  him  more  friendly  to 
Anderson,  who,  after  glaring  at  Bauer,  who  had  not 
said  a  word,  abruptly  went  out  of  the  shop. 

The  lamp  was  working  all  this  time,  with  an  ex- 
asperating smoothness  and  precision  that  spoke 
eloquently  of  its  financial  possibilities.  There  were 
.a  few  workers  in  the  other  parts  of  the  shop  who, 
realising  that  some  unusual  event  was  on,  began  to 
gather  around  Walter  and  Bauer  and  ask  questions. 
Among  the  group  was  Van  Shaw. 

In  a  few  moments  everyone  knew  the  story  of  the 
lamp,  and  Walter  and  Bauer  came  in  for  congratu- 
lations over  the  invention  and  sympathy  for  its  use- 
lessness  to  them. 

"I  could  have  told  everybody  about  that  lamp 
two  months  ago,"  said  Van  Shaw,  speaking  with  an 
indirect  manner  peculiarly  offensive  to  Walter.  "  I 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  83 

have  had  advices  from  a  near  friend  in  New  York 
that  Gambrich  was  at  work  on  this  device.  It's  a 
pity  some  Burrton  man  can't  have  the  credit  and  the 
cash  that  are  going  to  Gambrich." 

Walter's  fingers  closed  around  one  of  the  tools 
on  his  bench  and  he  felt  mad  enough  at  that  moment 
to  throw  it  either  at  Van  Shaw  or  the  lamp.  He  did 
not  do  either,  but  when  the  crowd  had  finally  gone 
away,  he  sat  down  at  his  bench  and  said  to  Bauer: 
"What  chumps  we  were  not  to  apply  for  a  patent 
weeks  ago.  We  might  have  contested  it.  We  have 
let  a  fortune  slip  out  of  our  hands  through  our 
stupidity." 

"  It's  because  we  did  not  take  anyone  into  con- 
fidence. I  never  thought  of  a  patent.  I  was  too 
much  absorbed  in  the  lamp  itself  to  think  anything 
about  anything  else." 

"  Whom  could  we  have  taken  into  confidence  ? 
Van  Shaw  or  Anderson?  But  I  don't  feel  like  giv- 
ing up.  Why  can't  we  contest  our  rights?  There 
are  cases  in  the  courts  every  day  over  patents  and 
inventions." 

"  But  it  takes  a  lot  of  money  to  hire  a  lawyer  and 
go  to  law,"  said  Bauer  with  real  Teutonic  caution. 
"  And  I  haven't  a  dollar  to  spare.  According  to 
Anderson,  it's  as  good  as  settled  that  Gambrich  has 
the  legal  right  to  the  lamps." 

Walter  stared  at  the  arc  gloomily.  He  felt  the 
disappointment  with  deep  bitterness.  Not  only  was 
his  pride  smitten  at  the  thought  of  others  who  were 
working  out  his  ideas,  but  the  thought  of  the  money 


84  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

he  might  have  made,  and  the  relief  that  money  might 
have  brought  him,  rankled  deepest  in  his  mind. 

Bauer  took  the  affair  more  philosophically.  He 
went  over  to  Walter  and  put  a  hand  on  his  shoulder. 

"When  we  are  beaten  we  might  as  well  accept  it 
and  make  something  else.  I  don't  like  to  see  you 
take  the  thing  so  hard." 

"What  else  can  we  make?"  Walter  said  after  a 
moment.  "  I've  lost  my  ambition." 

"  Oh,  no  you  haven't ;  not  for  good  and  all. 
Why,  we  might  invent  a  typewriter  telegraph." 

"  It's  too  late,  that's  already  been  done." 

"  I'll  tell  you  what  would  bring  us  fame  and 
money,"  said  Bauer  with  his  usual  slow  manner  and 
his  friendly  smile.  "  What  the  world  needs  is  a 
letter  writer  that  will  take  letters  at  dictation,  first 
hand." 

Walter  stared  at  Bauer  gloomily.  "  What's 
that?" 

"  A  direct  letter  writer,"  said  Bauer.  "  A  ma- 
chine that  the  business  man  and  the  minister  and  the 
college  professor  and  the  politician  and  the  railroad 
man  and  the  lover  could  talk  into.  As  fast  as  he 
talked,  it  would  make  a  visible  mark  on  the  paper 
and  when  the  person  was  through  dictating  his  letter 
he  could  pull  it  out  all  typewritten  ready  to  send. 
Just  think  what  a  blessing  this  would  be  to  the  busy 
letter  writer." 

Walter  stared  at  Bauer  as  if  his  friend  was  crazy. 
Then,  after  a  moment  of  doubt,  he  burst  into  a 
great  laugh. 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  86 

"  Well,  of  all  the —  It's  the  first  time  I  ever  knew 
a  German  could  be  out  and  out  funny.  Do  you 
know  what  your  letter  writing  machine  would  have  to 
do?  It  would  have  to  know  how  to  spell  right." 

"  No,  it  wouldn't.  All  it  would  have  to  do  would 
be  to  spell  phonetically.  Every  machine  would 
spell  and  print  just  as  the  person  talked." 

"  Yes,  and  what  will  become  of  the  great  army  of 
stenographers  and  typewriter  girls  who  make  their 
living  now  at  taking  dictation?  I  don't  want  to  in- 
vent something  that  is  going  to  deprive  thousands  of 
people  of  a  living." 

"  You  could  marry  one  of  them  and  I  would  marry 
another.  That  would  take  care  of  two  of  'em,"  said 
Bauer  solemnly. 

Walter  looked  up  at  him  a  moment,  and  then  he 
roared.  It  was  what  Bauer  wanted  him  to  do. 
And  when  they  finally  went  to  their  rooms  Walter 
was  feeling  somewhat  better,  although  he  did  not  get 
a  good  night's  sleep.  His  dreams  had  in  them  fit- 
ful glimpses  of  Van  Shaw  and  Anderson  and  a  red 
hot  arc  lamp  that  glared  and  flamed  at  him  with  a 
diabolical  grin  that  rejoiced  in  his  defeat. 

It  was  two  days  before  he  could  bring  himself  to 
write  home  a  full  account  of  the  matter.  Both  his 
father  and  his  mother  replied  to  this  and  each  wrote 
in  full  sympathy  with  him  and  a  knowledge  of  what 
his  disappointment  would  be  to  him. 

"  Of  course,"  Paul  said,  at  the  close  of  his  letter, 
"  if  it  is  true  that  the  New  York  man  really  invented 
the  idea  of  the  lamp  before  you  did  and  then  patented 


86  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

it  before  you  did,  that  settles  it,  even  if  you  were  first 
to  make  an  actual  model.  The  patent  laws  recog- 
nise priority  of  invention  where  no  unreasonable  de- 
lay has  followed  the  invention  and  the  application 
for  patent.  Looking  up  the  subject  in  the  Elec- 
trical News  and  consulting  with  Alvord,  our  best 
patent  lawyer  here  in  Milton,  I  am  afraid  you  are 
too  late  to  do  anything,  and  a  contest,  Alvord  thinks, 
would  result  in  nothing  but  expense  for  you  and  your 
friend.  If  I  thought  there  was  any  legal  right  you 
possessed  and  ought  to  have  I  would  be  willing  to 
help  you  contest  for  it.  But  that  seems  to  be  out 
of  the  question. 

"  Don't  let  this  defeat  mean  too  much  to  you.  It 
is  not  a  defeat.  You  did  your  best  and  actually 
made  a  very  important  discovery,  you  and  Bauer. 
If  you  can  do  that,  you  can  do  other  things  as  well. 
The  unknown,  undiscovered  world  of  electricity  is 
boundless.  You  have  as  much  right  to  enter  in  as 
anybody,  and  far  more  probabilities  than  most  per- 
sons that  you  will  find  something  worth  while.  We 
are  all  anticipating  your  home  coming  for  holidays 
and  expect  Bauer  to  come  with  you.  Affectionately; 
your  father. 

"  PAUL  DOUGLAS.'' 

Walter's  mother  wrote  in  much  the  same  way  and 
cheerfully  urged  him  to  take  all  the  disappointing 
things  with  hopeful  equanimity. 

"The  longer  I  live,  the  more  I  find  the  real  joy 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  87 

y 

of  life  consists  in  doing  our  best  with  God's  help  and 
leaving  the  results  with  Him.  Of  course  we  all  like 
to  get  results  out  of  our  efforts.  But  we  forget 
that  results  always  do  follow  honest  effort,  only  they 
are  not  always  the  results  we  expected  and  wanted. 
No  doubt,  boy,  you  feel  like  saying  to  us  at  home, 
*  Yes,  it's  easy  for  you  to  sit  there  at  your  ease  and 
deal  out  calm  chunks  of  sympathy  to  me  and  tell  me 
not  to  worry  or  feel  bad,  but  if  you  had  worked  as 
hard  as  I  did  you  wouldn't  find  it  quite  as  easy  to 
be  happy  over  this  disappointment.' 

"  Well,  we  confess  all  that,  but  your  mother 
loesn't  want  to  see  her  son  give  up  and  go  down  to 
Defeat  from  one  or  two  or  a  dozen  or  even  a  hun- 
dred blows.  You  have  had  the  joy  of  making  the 
lamp  (after  you  cleared  your  soul  by  confession  to 
Bauer),  and  you  know  that  your  brain  works  at  its 
best  along  inventive  lines  and  you  know  the  field  of 
invention,  especially  in  electricity,  is  limitless. 
Your  mother  says  to  you,  we  feel  proud  of  you  and 
we  will  feel  doubly  proud  if  you  will  learn  to  take 
this  disappointment  cheerfully.  Don't  be  a  baby 
over  it.  Be  a  man.  The  tests  of  manhood  are  not 
found  in  the  easy,  but  in  the  difficult  things  of  life. 

"  The  great  thing  after  all,  is  to  live  up  to  the 
high  calling.  I  don't  care  much,  Walter,  whether 
you  ever  invent  anything  or  not,  although  I  wish 
you  could  find  out  how  to  make  a  machine  that  will 
take  off  a  woman's  hat  and  hold  it  in  church  so  that 
she  can  take  care  of  her  hymn  book,  her  Bible,  her 
gloves,  her  pocket  book,  her  fan,  her  umbrella  and 


88  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

her  handkerchief,  but  if  you  never  discovered  a  single 
secret  of  nature  and  discover  the  secret  of  a  useful 
life,  I  would  be  and  shall  be  the  happiest  of  all 
women,  for  that  is  my  ambition  for  you  and  always 
will  be. 

"  Be  sure  and  bring  Bauer  home  with  you.  We 
are  all  interested  to  see  him. 

"  Lovingly, 

"  MOTHER." 

Helen  also  wrote  to  Walter  at  this  time.  She 
was  not  much  of  a  letter  writer  but  she  wanted  to 
add  her  word  of  sympathy  with  the  rest  and  Walter 
felt  especially  pleased  that  she  exerted  herself  on 
this  occasion. 

"  Dear  Bub,"  Helen  wrote,  using  the  name  she 
had  always  given  him  in  her  childhood.  "  We  all 
feel  awfully  sorry  about  the  way  the  lamp  came  out. 
It  didn't  seem  fair  to  you  and  I  hope  you  will  in- 
vent something  better  that  will  throw  that  lamp  in 
the  shade,  so  to  speak.  We  all  believe  in  you  and  I 
have  never  for  a  moment  doubted  that  in  time  you 
would  be  another  Edison.  I'm  enjoying  my  school 
this  year  more  than  ever.  Since  our  new  gym- 
nasium director  was  appointed  I  have  found  favor 
in  her  eyes  and  she  has  turned  over  one  of  the  acad- 
emy classes  to  me  by  consent  of  President  Bruce. 
I  did  plan  to  study  for  a  position  as  professor  of 
domestic  science,  but  since  this  appointment  work 
opened  up  I  feel  as  if  I  could  like  to  be  a  physical 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  89 

director  in  a  college  or  a  Y.  W.  C.  A.  I  love  the 
gymnasium  work  immensely  and  Miss  Rhodes  says 
I  am  her  best  pupil. 

"  We  are  all  wondering  what  sort  of  an  individual 
your  Felix  Bauer  is.  Does  he  speak  broken  En- 
glish very  badly?  Will  it  be  difficult  to  talk  to  him 
without  a  German  grammar?  I  have  an  idea  I  shall 
not  like  him  very  well,  from  what  you  have  written 
about  him.  But  I  don't  suppose  that  will  make 
any  difference  to  him. 

"  Father  has  got  into  politics  all  right  and  as  he 
and  mother  have  written  you,  he  has  been  elected 
senator  and  will  begin  his  term  in  January  when 
the  legislature  meets.  Father  is  very  hopeful  about 
doing  things.  Mother  says  he  will  have  lots  of  op- 
position from  the  machine.  I  don't  understand  all 
this  political  discussion,  but  you  know  father.  He 
is  dead  in  earnest  as  you  know  and  now  that  he  is 
elected  he  is  going  to  make  the  machine,  whatever 
that  is,  *  sit  up  and  take  notice.'  This  is  what  my 
teacher  in  English  would  call  a  disjointed  metaphor. 

"  Father  is  working  over  a  dozen  bills  calculated 
to  reform  the  state.  The  word  '  reform  '  is  a  house- 
hold word  in  the  Douglas  family.  But  you  know 
father.  Isn't  he  the  dearest  man  that  ever  lived? 
It  makes  me  mad  to  read  what  the  papers  have  been 
saying  about  him  ever  since  he  was  nominated.  Any- 
one who  didn't  know  father  would  think  from  read- 
ing these  papers  that  he  was  an  out  and  out  villain. 
And  we  all  know,  and  Milton  people  know,  that  if 
ever  a  man  lived  who  had  a  pure  and  earnest  desire 


90  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

to  help  make  a  better  world,  father  is  that  man.  I 
hate  politics.  It  seems  to  me  it  is  the  meanest  thing 
there  is.  I  don't  know  anything  else  so  mean  as  to 
take  a  man  like  father  and  question  his  motives  and 
call  him  all  sorts  of  names  and  try  to  blacken  his 
character.  Mother  says  she  doesn't  mind,  but  I 
believe  she  can't  help  feeling  it  some.  It  just  makes 
me  mad. 

"  Well,  bub,  don't  be  discouraged.  We  believe  in 
you  just  as  much  as  ever.  We  are  looking  for  you 
home  next  week. 

"  Oh,  by  the  way,  does  your  friend  Bauer  have 
to  have  his  beer  regularly?  And  must  we  lay  in 
an  extra  supply  of  sauer  kraut  anTH  pretzels  ?  I  am 
sitting  up  nights  studying  my  German  exercises  so 
I  can  say  *  Eine  Schwalbe  macht  noch  Keinen  Som- 
mer '  and  other  interesting  topics  of  conversation. 
Lovingly  your  sister. 

"  HELEN  DILLINGHAM  DOUGLAS." 

Walter  laughed  over  this  letter,  but  rather  re- 
sented the  tone  Helen  displayed  about  Bauer.  "  I 
hope  Bauer  won't  make  any  bad  breaks  and  I  don't 
believe  he  will."  But  Walter  had  a  little  talk  with 
Bauer  that  same  evening  in  which  Bauer  expressed 
a  little  nervousness  about  his  approaching  visit  at 
Walter's  home. 

"  I  haven't  ever  been  anywhere  to  speak  of,  you 
know,"  he  said  a  little  doubtfully.  "  And  I  begin 
to  feel  a  little  afraid  of  meeting  your  folks." 

"Afraid?     Why,  you  can't  even  look  at  mother 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  91 

without  falling  in  love  with  her.  And  as  for  father 
he  will  take  to  you  right  off.  I  know  he  will,  for 
several  reasons." 

"  But  your  sister?  "  Bauer  looked  up  at  the  photo- 
graph of  Helen  on  Walter's  dresser.  "  Somehow  I 
feel  a  little  afraid  of  her.  I  don't  believe  I'll  get 
along  very  well.  Does  she  talk  German?  I  feel  a 
little  more  at  my  ease  if  I  can  talk  what  you  call 
small  talk  in  my  own  language." 

"  No,  I  don't  believe  Helen  knows  enough  German 
to  talk  it  intelligently.  But  you  needn't  be  afraid 
of  her.  She  is  interested  in  your  coming  as  all  the 
family  are  and  she  has  asked  me  several  questions 
about  you,"  said  Walter,  not  venturing  to  tell  Bauer 
what  the  questions  were. 

"  Is  that  so?  "  said  Bauer,  looking  pleased.  Then 
after  a  moment  he  added,  "  It's  awfully  good  of  you 
to  ask  me  to  your  home.  I  won't  forget  it." 

And  indeed,  Felix  Bauer,  you  never  will. 

The  two  friends  reached  Milton  three  days  be- 
fore Christmas  and  were  met  at  the  station  by  Paul 
and  Louis.  Paul  took  to  Bauer  from  the  moment 
he  first  saw  him.  You  know  how  that  is,  that  in- 
describable attraction  you  feel  towards  certain  peo- 
ple even  without  an  introduction,  and  Bauer  had 
the  same  feeling  for  Walter's  father.  At  the  din- 
ner table  that  night  Bauer  soon  forgot  his  timidity 
because  everyone  was  so  kind.  There  was  any  num- 
ber of  questions  to  ask.  Walter  did  a  large  share 
of  the  talking.  Mrs.  Douglas  looked  proud  and 
happy.  Helen  was  on  her  best  behavior  and  in  less 


92  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

than  ten  minutes  Bauer  had  lost  his  fear  of  her  and 
was  in  danger  of  entertaining  the  opposite  feeling. 
Walter  Darcy  and  Louis  Darcy,  Esther's  brothers, 
were  present,  and  helped  to  make  the  meal  a  lively 
and  entertaining  occasion.  And  Felix  Bauer  said 
to  himself  when  the  evening  was  over  that  it  was  the 
pleasantest  evening  of  his  life. 

The  next  morning  Paul  asked  Bauer  to  go  down 
to  the  office  with  him.  The  News  was  installing  a 
recently  invented  linotype  and  Paul  wanted  Bauer 
to  see  it. 

They  looked  over  the  mechanism  and  then  came 
back  to  Paul's  office  room.  Bauer  was  looking  over 
some  specimen  type  Paul  had  on  his  table  when  three 
men  came  in. 

Paul  looked  up,  his  face  changed  colour  for  a 
moment  and  he  asked  the  visitors  to  be  seated. 
He  knew  two  of  the  men  and  they  introduced  the 
third. 

"  Senator  Douglas,  this  is  Judge  Livingston  of 
Camford.  We  want  a  talk,  a  private  talk  with  you 
on  political  business,"  said  the  speaker,  the  Hon. 
George  Maxwell,  as  he  looked  at  Bauer. 

"  This  young  man  is  a  friend  of  mine,  spending 
the  holidays  with  us,"  said  Paul  quietly,  and  he  in- 
troduced Bauer  to  the  three  visitors. 

There  was  a  pause,  and  then  Mr.  Maxwell  said, 
"  We  want  a  private  conference  with  you,  Mr.  Doug- 
las, if  you  don't  mind."  Bauer  started  to  go  out 
and  Paul  said  to  him,  "  You  don't  have  to  go  unless 
you  prefer." 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  93 

"  I'll  go  back  to  the  house,  Mr.  Douglas,"  Bauer 
said,  and  immediately  went  out. 

Maxwell  started  to  shut  the  door  after  him. 

"  Mr.  Maxwell,  that  is  not  necessary,"  said  Paul 
very  distinctly.  "  I  think  I  know  what  you  have 
come  to  see  me  about.  Let  me  say,  gentlemen,  once 
for  all,  that  I  have  no  secrets,  and  no  use  for  any  in 
my  political  life.  I  do  not  believe  in  all  this  private 
conference  and  closed  doors  in  connection  with  any 
action  of  mine  in  the  coming  legislature.  I  am  not 
going  to  do  a  single  thing  that  will  require  me  to 
whisper  or  retire  behind  any  closed  doors.  So,  see- 
ing this  is  my  office,  and  it  is  the  regular  custom  to 
leave  the  door  open,  we  will  leave  it  open." 

The  Hon.  Maxwell  looked  doubtfully  at  Paul  and 
the  other  visitors  did  the  same.  They  finally  went 
over  to  a  corner  of  the  office  and  whispered  together. 
Then  they  came  back,  drew  their  chairs  close  up  to 
Douglas's  desk  and  Maxwell  said: 

"  Mr.  Douglas,  we  have  come  to  see  you  about 
some  of  these  proposed  bills  of  yours.  This  Re- 
form business  is  being  run  into  the  ground.  We  are 
tired  of  it.  The  people  are  getting  tired  of  it.  You 
are  going  to  have  a  great  influence  in  the  legisla- 
ture. We  concede  that  fact.  Now,  what  we  want 
to  do  is  to  talk  over  some  of  these  bills  and  get  your 
influence  to  modify  or  change  in  some  ways." 

Paul  listened  thoughtfully  and  when  Maxwell 
was  through  he  said,  "  Will  you  mention  the  par- 
ticular bills  you  have  in  mind?  I  am  not  certain  I 
know  after  all  just  what  your  business  with  me  is." 


94  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

Maxwell  coughed  and  drew  up  his  chair  nearer. 
The  other  two  men  did  the  same.  The  hum  of  the 
presses  was  beginning  to  pervade  the  building  as 
Maxwell,  in  reply  to  Paul's  request,  continued. 


CHAPTER    VII 

YOU  see,  Senator,"  said  the  Hon.  Maxwell, 
"  that  the  party  is  not  agreed  on  these  bills 
you  are  preparing.  Take  for  example'  that  bill,  I 
understand  you  are  the  author  of  it,  on  public 
health.  As  we  understand  the  matter,  it  is  going  to 
work  great  hardship  on  the  retail  dealer,  and  besides, 
pardon  me,  it  is  so  full  of  fads  and  absurdities  that 
it  will  make  the  party  the  laughing  stock  of  the 
state.  And  there  is  that  bill  on  public  lands  and  in- 
vestigating old  entries.  That  will  stir  up  an  un- 
necessary lot  of  trouble  and  help  to  disrupt  the 
party.  You  must  remember,  Senator,  that  while 
you  call  yourself  independent  in  politics,  you  al- 
lowed your  nomination  to  be  made  by  the  party,  and 
you  are  one  of  us  and  have  no  right  to  split  the 
party  into  factions.  More  than  half  these  bills  you 
are  advocating  in  the  News  are  of  questionable  value 
and  all  of  them,  it  seems  to  us,  are  calculated  to 
make  enemies  in  our  own  ranks.  The  thing  for  you 
to  do,  it  seems  to  us,  is  to  stand  pat.  Wages  are 
good  and  the  people  are  generally  contented.  Pros- 
perity is  beginning  to  come  back  and  it  is  poor  policy 
to  stir  up  matters.  I've  been  through  a  lot  of  cam- 
paigns and  I  want  to  say  to  you,  Senator,  that  I 
know  the  people  pretty  well,  sir,  and  the  people  are 

95 


96 

beginning  to  feel  sore  over  all  this  reform  business. 
They  are  beginning  to  feel  that  they  can't  turn 
around  or  do  a  thing  without  someone  claiming 
the  right  to  pass  a  law  telling  'em  how  to  do  it.  The 
effect  of  the  reform  measures  you  are  advocating 
will  be  to  disrupt  the  party." 

The  Hon.  Maxwell  paused  and  his  two  friends 
nodded  assent  after  his  somewhat  lengthy  talk. 
Paul's  first  impulse  was  to  get  tremendously  mad 
and  tell  the  visitors  to  get  out,  as  politely  as  it  could 
be  done  in  a  hurry.  Then  his  sense  of  humour  and 
of  right  proportion  came  to  save  him. 

Maxwell  he  knew  fairly  well  to  be  one  of  the  most 
narrow  minded  type  of  politicians,  honest  enough 
so  far  as  that  went,  but  without  a  shred  of  real  patri- 
otism or  any  faintest  glimmer  of  sense  on  matters 
of  public  welfare.  His  little  soul  revolved  in  a  jerky 
and  contracted  orbit  about  the  party.  This  orbit 
never  took  him  out  of  sight  of  the  "  party."  Under 
good  men  and  bad  in  office,  under  defeat  and  under 
victory,  under  the  varying  vicissitudes  of  fortune 
that  his  meagre  political  life  had  known  for  forty 
years,  he  had  never  gone  back  on  the  party.  He 
had  held  one  or  two  minor  offices  in  the  course  of  his 
career  and  was  deeply  grateful  to  the  party  for  rec- 
ognising his  right  to  an  office.  But  when  the  party 
ignored  him  and  put  in  some  other  creature,  Max- 
well never  complained.  To  change  the  figure  from 
the  satellite  and  the  orbit  to  a  living  organism,  Max- 
well was  like  Bill  Syke's  dog;  no  matter  how  the 
treated  him,  he  licked  its  hand  just  the  same 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  97 

and  showed  the  same  loyalty  and  affection  for  the 
party  when  it  kicked  him  down  stairs  as  when  it  fed 
him  at  the  pie  counter.  In  forty  years  Maxwell 
had  not  learned  a  new  idea  or  grown  an  inch  in  po- 
litical stature.  He  was  a  party  man  and  was  proud 
of  it.  His  one  great  virtue  was  that  he  was  honest. 
He  voted  regularly  for  all  sorts  of  thieves  and  bood- 
lers  and  scoundrels  nominated  by  the  party,  but  he 
had  in  some  marvellous  fashion  known  only  to  his 
Maker,  kept  himself  clear  of  all  personal  briberyj 
and  political  trickery. 

All  this  Paul  knew  quite  well,  and  he  was  not  able 
to  despise  Maxwell  on  account  of  his  one  redeeming 
factor.  But  the  slavery  that  had  tied  Maxwell  body 
and  soul  all  his  life  was  so  foreign  to  Paul's  whole 
makeup  that  he  could  not  understand  it  and  he  had 
to  repress  his  natural  desire  to  explode  over 
Maxwell's  talk.  But  he  did  manage  to  say  quite 
calmly : 

"  Mr.  Maxwell,  I  appreciate  your  plea  for  the 
party,  but  I  don't  see  things  as  you  do.  While  I 
accepted  the  nomination,  as  you  say,  at  the  hands 
of  the  party,  I  distinctly  outlined  my  views  at  the 
time  and  made  no  pledges  that  bind  me  either  to  the 
party  or  to  measures,  if  these  measures  conflict  with 
my  own  sense  of  what  is  for  the  best  interests  of  the 
people.  I  think  the  people  who  elected  me  under- 
stand that  I  am  free  to  act  in  that  way.  And, 
frankly,  that  is  the  way  I  intend  to  act.  There 
may  be  some  mistakes  in  some  of  these  bills.  It 
would  be  strange  if  there  wasn't.  But  I  believe  they 


98  THE    HIGH   CALLING 

are  for  the  good  of  all  the  people  or,  of  course,  I 
would  not  urge  them." 

Maxwell  shook  his  head  doubtfully. 

"  This  reform  business  has  gone  too  far.  My 
friends  here  know  that.  Judge  Livingston  can  tell 
you  how  the  people  out  his  way  feel." 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  Livingston  in  a  dry,  machine- 
made  manner ;  "  Senator,  the  people  in  our  district 
are  growing  restive  over  the  reform  business.  They 
want  to  be  let  alone.  We  have  too  many  laws  now, 
laws  that  interfere  with  our  personal  liberty."  (The 
judge  grew  eloquent.)  "  Laws  that  attempt  to  dic- 
tate to  us  what  we  shall  eat  and  drink  and  where  to 
go,  and  I  for  one  say  for  my  district  that  these  con- 
tinual efforts  to  legislate  on  personal  matters  will 
not  only  disrupt  the  party,  but  lead  to  a  counter 
revolution  that  will  surprise  the  so-called  reform 
bosses  of  the  state." 

Paul  looked  at  the  judge  steadily.  If  he  could 
have  looked  at  him  with  an  X-ray  eye  he  would  have 
seen  a  small  sample  whisky  bottle  in  the  judge's  coat 
pocket,  one  of  the  adjuncts  of  "  personal  liberty  " 
the  judge  was  defending.  Not  seeing  that,  Paul  did 
size  up  the  man  for  about  what  he  was  and  answered 
him  accordingly. 

"As  to  legislation  that  affects  personal  liberty, 
these  bills  you  say  you  have  come  to  see  me  about 
deprive  no  man  of  any  liberty  he  has  a  right  to  pos- 
sess. But  I  am  ready  to  confess  they  do  deprive 
some  persons  of  the  liberty  to  steal  the  people's  land 
and  water  power.  They  do  aim  to  take  away  the 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  99 

liberty  of  certain  food  makers  to  poison  the  people, 
and  of  certain  other  food  sellers  to  give  the  people 
short  weight.  Some  of  these  acts  are  also  designed 
to  take  from  certain  persons  the  liberty  to  demoral- 
ise youth,  as  for  example  the  measure  a  number  of 
us  hope  to  get  through  the  legislature  regulating  bill 
boards  and  indecent  posters.  For  years  a  little  com- 
pany of  men  has  insulted  all  the  people  with  these 
public  monstrosities.  I  am  frank  to  say  I  have  no 
scruples  in  depriving  them  of  the  liberty  to  do  so 
any  more.  And  as  to  dictating  to  the  people  what 
they  should  eat  and  drink,  don't  you  think  the  saloon 
and  the  patent  medicine  men  and  the  adulterated 
food  makers  and  the  dirty  food  sellers  have  been 
dictating  to  the  people  centuries  enough,  to  give  us 
some  excuse  for  depriving  them  of  their  long  monop- 
oly to  deal  out  sickness  and  death  at  wholesale? 
When  you  talk  of  '  personal  liberty '  it  is  well  to  re- 
member the  fact  that  no  man  has  any  right  to  a 
personal  liberty  which  results  in  evil  to  his  neighbour 
or  to  society." 

The  judge  turned  very  red,  and  was  on  the  point? 
of  replying.  But  Maxwell  broke  in. 

"  This  is  aside  from  the  question,  Senator.  The 
main  fact  you  ignore.  The  main  fact  is  that  what 
you  are  planning  to  do  will  split  the  party." 

Paul  lost  his  temper. 

"  Let  it  split,  then !  I  don't  worship  the 
party!  What  is  the  party  by  the  side  of  the  peo- 
ple?" 

Maxwell  looked  shocked.     I  think  he  really  felt 


100  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

as  he  looked.  Paul  could  not  have  said  anything 
more  treasonable. 

"  Senator,  you  will  regret  those  words.  Mark  me. 
You  will  regret  it.  One  of  the  things  I  was  going 

to  say  was "  Maxwell  lowered  his  voice  and 

looked  around.  "  I  was  going  to  say  that  you  have 
it  in  your  power  so  to  shape  your  own  future  that 
the  governorship  would  come  to  you  in  two  years, 
or  the  national  senatorship.  The  party  would  be 
willing  to  reward  a  man  like  you " 

Paul  exploded  again.  "  Governorship !  Senator- 
ship  ! '  he  almost  shouted  while  Maxwell  looked  ap- 
prehensively at  the  open  door. 

"  Do  you  think  I  care  about  them  as  reward  for 
political  slavery?  "  Then  he  suddenly  realised  how 
useless  it  was  to  let  a  man  like  Maxwell  understand. 

"  Gentlemen,"  he  said  good  naturedly,  "  excuse 
me.  The  occasion  does  not  call  for  excitement.  I 
understand  your  purpose  in  coming  to  see  me.  It 
will  save  your  time  and  mine  to  say  that  I  shall  not 
change  my  plans  to  press  these  bills  even  if  the  re- 
sult is  to  disrupt  the  party.  And  you  are  as  free 
to  say  that  as  I  expect  to  be  in  my  editorial  this 
evening." 

Maxwell  nervously  interrupted. 

"  You  are  committing  political  suicide,  Mr. 
Douglas." 

"  That's  better  than  hari  kari,  eh?  "  said  Douglas 
with  a  smile. 

Maxwell  stared.  He  had  heard  of  hari  kari  per- 
haps, but  did  not  know  whether  it  was  the  name  of 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  101 

a  new  type  of  airship  or  a  health  food.  He  went 
away  with  his  two  friends,  firmly  convinced,  how- 
ever, that  the  editor  of  the  News  was  on  the  road 
to  political  destruction. 

After  Paul  had  written  his  editorial  for  the  News 
he  was  not  certain  himself  that  he  had  not  really 
done  what  Maxwell  predicted.  He  had  certainly 
never  spoken  so  plainly  and  even  bluntly  on  the  is- 
sues of  the  campaign,  and  he  knew  perfectly  well 
that  the  Maxwell  political  type  dominated  thousands 
of  voters,  men  who  resent  any  act  in  politics  which 
threatens  to  disarrange  the  smooth  running  of  the 
machine.  In  politics  it  is  almost  as  easy  to  raise  a 
howl  against  reform  as  it  is  to  raise  a  cry  for  it. 
There  are  thousands  of  party  men  in  this  republic 
who  as  long  as  they  can  make  their  bread  and  butter 
out  of  machine  politics  don't  care  what  price  the 
people  have  to  pay  for  their  bread  and  butter. 

When  Paul  went  home  that  night  he  did  what  he 
had  done  for  twenty-one  years.  The  minute  he  was 
in  the  hall,  he  said,  "  Esther?  "  with  an  interroga- 
tion point  after  the  name. 

Esther  was  upstairs  in  the  upper  hall.  She  re- 
plied in  a  subdued  tone,  "  Yes,  here  I  am,"  and 
Paul  ran  up  three  steps  at  a  time  to  greet  her. 
Marriage  may  be  a  failure  with  some  people,  but  it 
certainly  was  not  with  Paul  and  Esther  who  had  re- 
mained lovers  all  these  years,  simply  because  they 
had  made  their  married  life  a  joyful,  sacred  and 
deeply  Christian  compact,  a  genuine  union  of  heart 
and  head  and  soul.  Paul  wrote  love  letters  to  his 


102  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

wife,  sent  her  flowers  and  in  general  courted  her  in 
much  the  same  fashion  Esther  had  known  when  Paul 
was  a  struggling  reporter.  And  Esther  kept  her- 
self bonny  for  his  sake,  entered  in  whole-souled  fash- 
ion into  his  ambitions  and  was  not  afraid  to  debate 
politics  with  him  and  keep  womanly.  One  great  secret 
of  their  joyful  married  life  was  found  in  the  perfect 
frankness  each  showed  the  other,  and  also  in  the 
blessed  fact  that  each  of  them  had  almost  a  perfect 
physical  constitution,  not  frayed  nor  tortured  with 
nerves  and  sensitiveness. 

The  minute  Paul  saw  Esther  he  knew  some  un- 
usual event  had  occurred.  Paul  was  quick  to  detect 
the  presence  of  any  new  thing  because  Esther's  ex- 
pressive face  could  never  hide  a  great  secret.  Paul 
was  on  the  point  of  asking  what  it  was  when  his  eye 
was  attracted  by  a  commotion  going  on  behind  the 
door  of  a  cedar  linen  closet  at  the  end  of  the  hall. 
There  was  a  sudden  wrenching  and  tearing  of  cloth, 
then  a  great  Jovian  sized  laugh,  the  door  burst  open 
and  a  huge  figure  stepped  out  into  the  hall  where 
Esther  stood  laughing  hard. 

"  George  Randall !  "  cried  Paul,  and  the  next  min- 
ute he  and  his  old  pupil  were  in  each  other's  arms. 

"  As  big  as  ever,"  cried  Paul,  as  he  stepped  back 
to  look  at  his  unexpected  visitor. 

"  Bigger,"  said  George,  grinning.  "  Mrs.  Doug- 
las, if  you'll  get  a  needle  and  thread  I'll  mend  my 
coat.  You  see,  I  just  stepped  in  there  to  surprise 
you  a  minute  and  I  backed  up  against  a  hook  and 
it  caught  right  under  my  collar  and  tore  half  of  it 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  108 

off.  What  makes  you  make  your  closets  so 
small?" 

While  Paul  was  overwhelming  Randall  with  greet- 
ings and  questions,  and  Mrs.  Douglas  was  sewing  on 
the  medical  missionary's  coat  collar,  Randall  was 
explaining  his  unexpected  appearance  in  Milton. 

"  You  see  I've  been  transferred  to  Feu  Chou  Fu, 
the  new  hospital  there.  I've  been  called  home  by 
the  board  to  help  raise  funds  for  the  plant.  I  left 
so  sudden  I  didn't  have  time  to  write  you  and  I 
wasn't  certain  either  that  I  would  come  here.  But 
my  father !  Do  you  know  about  what's  happened  to 
him?" 

"  No,"  said  Paul.  "  I  knew  he'd  been  travelling 
with  your  mother  for  her  health,  but  I  haven't  seen 
either  of  them  for  two  years  since  they  went  abroad 
the  last  time." 

"  My  father  is  going  to  be  a  Christian !  He  and 
mother  never  took  kindly  to  my  going  as  a  medical 
missionary,  but  last  year  they  stopped  to  see  me  at 
Shaowu.  I  didn't  know  it  at  the  time,  but  father 
was  tremendously  impressed  with  the  missionary  sit- 
uation. Then  over  at  Ponasang,  father  was  taken 
ill,  and  what  should  happen  to  him  providentially 
but  he  had  to  go  to  our  hospital  there.  Dr.  Wilder 
fixed  up  his  body,  and  what  is  more  he  reached  his 
soul,  and  father  wrote  me  just  before  I  left  Feu 
Chou  Fu  that  he  had  found  the  light  after  living  in 
the  dark  all  his  life,  and  at  the  close  of  his  letter  said 
he  and  mother  were  on  their  way  home  to  Milton  and 
wanting  to  know  how  he  could  best  serve  the  cause 


104  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

of  Christ.  I  hardly  slept  all  the  way  over  to  Van- 
couver for  the  joy  of  lying  awake  thinking  of  it. 
A  cable  from  father  reached  me  this  morning  from 
San  Francisco,  saying  they  would  be  at  Milton  next 
week.  They  sailed  by  way  of  Auckland  and  Hono- 
lulu. So  I  thought  I  might  as  well  come  and  board 
with  Mrs.  Douglas  and  you  until  they  arrived.  You 
can  open  a  can  of  something,  and  that  will  do  for 
me,  and  I  can  hang  myself  up  in  the  closet  if  you 
are  short  of  beds. 

"  But  won't  father  and  I  have  a  jolly  time  when 
he  gets  back?  I  won't  ask  him  for  more  than  half 
a  million  to  start  with  to  put  into  the  surgical  de- 
partment. Poor  old  pater!  He  has  never  had  any 
fun  with  his  old  money.  I'm  going  to  help  him  have 
the  time  of  his  life  now  spending  it  for  Christ  and 
the  Kingdom.  My !  But  won't  we  have  a  j  oily  lot 
of  fun  with  that  money  now  ?  " 

That  evening  at  the  supper  table  George  Ran- 
dall simply  fascinated  the  whole  company  with  his 
stories  of  Chinese  life  and  the  victories  of  the  gos- 
pel. Esther  invited  in  her  brothers,  Walter  and 
Louis.  Felix  Bauer  had  never  seen  anyone  like 
Randall,  and  he  sat  the  whole  evening  absorbed,  lis- 
tening to  the  recital  of  as  marvellous  a  story  of  con- 
quest as  any  to  be  found  in  the  chapters  of  Ceasar, 
Frederick  the  Great  or  Napoleon.  And  what  a  con- 
quest !  Not  war  and  pillage  and  pitiful  man's  ambi- 
tion for  power,  but  conquest  of  that  great  territory 
called  the  human  heart. 

"  My,  but  I  wish  you  folks  could  have  seen  what 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  105 

I  saw  there  months  ago  at  Shantung;  five  thousand 
people  stood  up  in  a  public  square  in  front  of  one  of 
the  old  temples,  no  one  knows  how  old,  and  threw 
thousands  of  idols  into  a  heap  on  the  ground  and 
burned  them,  and  then  sang  in  their  own  language 
to  our  tune,  '  Anywhere  With  Jesus  I  Can  Safely 
Go.'  For  five  days,  much  of  the  time  through  a 
pouring  rain,  more  than  five  thousand  people  met 
to  listen  to  the  gospel  of  light  and  life  and 
healing.  We  rigged  up  a  sort  of  field  hos- 
pital, using  part  of  the  temple  for  a  clinic,  and 
Walter  and  Rice  and  Colfax  and  I  cut  off  legs  and 
arms  and  heads  of  no  end  of  diseased  folks  and  oper- 
ated for  compound  cataract  and  every  known  and 
unknown  disease,  and  the  Lord  was  with  us.  We 
didn't  lose  a  case,  and  you  never  saw  or  heard  such 
sights  in  prosaic  money-loving  America.  Why, 
those  people  are  born  again !  That  whole  district 
is  simply  awake  out  of  several  centuries'  sleep.  I 
have  the  consent  of  the  high  powers  in  that  district 
to  negotiate  over  here  for  a  lot  of  machinery  and 
stuff  for  agricultural  purposes.  And  those  people 
are  putting  up  a  church  at  Angfu  that  will  beat  any 
church  in  Milton  for  work  and  worship.  Think  of 
that,  beloved !  In  a  country  that  has  stood  still  for 
twenty-five  centuries,  worshipping  the  past  and  bow- 
ing down  to  nineteen  thousand  filthy  gods,  you  can 
hear  '  My  Faith  Looks  Up  to  Thee  '  and  '  All  Hail 
the  Power  of  Jesus'  Name  '  sung  by  congregations 
so  big  that  they  have  to  meet  out  doors.  And  yet  I 
understand  from  reading  one  or  two  high-browed 


106  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

religious  magazines  printed  in  this  country  that  the 
old  gospel  has  lost  its  power  and  that  the  world 
must  have  a  new  brand  of  religion  of  the  hermetically 
canned  variety  suited  to  the  elevated  culture  and 
new  thought  of  the  times.  But  the  old  gospel  seems 
to  do  the  work  in  China  all  right.  At  any  rate  it 
makes  real  men  and  women  out  of  animals,  and 
changes  sinners  into  saints.  I  don't  know  any  test 
of  a  religion  bigger  than  that,  do  you?  " 

Paul  asked  one  or  two  questions  and  started  Ran- 
dall off  on  an  account  of  a  missionary  tour  into  the 
unexplored  parts  of  west  China.  Then  he  spoke  of 
the  contemptuous  criticism  offered  by  a  certain  type 
of  globe  trotters  he  had  met  on  his  way  home.  In 
telling  about  this  his  great  form  seemed  to  tower  up 
and  his  great  head  with  its  mild  blue  eyes  looked 
sternly  gigantic  with  righteous  indignation. 

"  There  was  a  bunch  of  naval  officers  coming  over 
on  the  Zarina  with  us,  and  some  of  them  were  quite 
fine  fellows.  But  there  was  one  officer  who  used  to 
get  out  with  the  author  of  a  book  on  the  Eastern 
situation,  and  they  would  spend  hours  criticising 
the  missionaries  and  laying  the  blame  on  them  for 
all  the  Boxer  troubles  and  the  hatred  of  foreigners 
generally. 

"  I  didn't  know  until  later  on  that  the  reason  for 
the  distinguished  author's  feelings  against  mission- 
aries was  because  some  of  his  own  personal  immor- 
alities had  been  rebuked  by  a  missionary  in  Pao 
Ting  Fu  and  he  had  been  mad  ever  since. 

"  His  friend,  the  naval  officer  ( and  I  was  thank- 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  107 

ful  he  didn't  belong  to  our  country),  took  great 
pride  in  describing  his  conquests  with  the  fair  sex 
in  the  different  quarters  of  the  globe  where  he  had 
been  on  his  war  vessel. 

"  Think  of  that,  dearly  beloved !  Here  was  a  man 
who  when  he  touched  at  a  foreign  port  had  no  more 
exact  knowledge  of  the  work  done  by  missionaries 
than  the  knowledge  he  gained  from  going  to  a  high- 
priced  ball  or  champagne  supper  held  a  few  feet 
from  the  shore,  expressing  the  most  emphatic  opin- 
ions concerning  the  value  of  a  foreign  missionary's 
life  and  influence!  He  changed  his  costume  several 
times  a  day.  And  I  learned  from  a  midshipman  who 
volunteered  the  information  that  the  following  com- 
prises the  regular  and  compulsory  list  of  clothes  a 
naval  officer  in  this  Christian  age  is  obliged  to  pos- 
sess and  solemnly  wear  on  the  proper  occasions. 
Want  to  hear  it?" 

Louis,  who  had  of  late  been  begging  his  father  to 
let  him  try  for  a  place  in  a  naval  academy,  eagerly 
said,  "  Yes,  tell  us,  Mr.  Randall." 

"  Well,  here  is  a  list  of  this  human  being's  clothes 
that  he  must,  according  to  the  naval  rules,  lug 
around  the  world  with  him: 

"  A  double-breasted  frock  coat  of  dark  navy  blue 
cloth  with  a  sleeve  stripe  of  gold  lace  a  quarter  of 
an  inch  wide  and  a  gold  star,  which  indicates  the 
line  officer.  *  Service  coat  of  blue  cloth  and  with  the 
same  sleeve  lace  and  a  gold  foul  anchor  on  the  col- 
lar.' '  White  service  coat  with  gold  shoulder  marks 
indicating  the  rank.'  *  Evening  dress  coat  of  blue 


108  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

cloth  with  gilt  buttons  and  sleeve  lace.'  *  Blue  even- 
ing dress  waistcoat  with  gilt  buttons.'  *  White 
evening  dress  coat.'  *  White  mess  jacket.'  *  Full 
dress  trousers  of  blue  cloth  and  gold  lace  a  quarter- 
inch  wide.'  *  Undress  blue  trousers,  plain.'  *  White 
trousers  and  many  of  them.'  '  Service  overcoat  of 
heavy  blue  cloth.'  *  Cloak  of  blue  cloth.'  *  A  black 
mackintosh.'  '  Blue  uniform  cap.'  '  White  uniform 
cap.'  '  Cork  or  pith  helmet.'  *  Sword  with  sword 
knot.'  *  Leggings.'  '  A  suit  of  rain  clothes.' 

*  Black  satin  or  silk,  four-in-hand  tie.'    *  Plain  black 
tie    for    evening   dress    uniform.'      '  White    gloves.' 

*  Black  shoes.'     *  White  shoes.' 

In  the  pause  that  followed  this  reading,  Louis 
looked  disappointed. 

"  Would  I  have  to  get  all  these  and  take  care  of 
them  if  I  went  into  the  navy  ?  " 

"  That's  right,  my  boy,  and  not  only  get  'em  but 
wear  'em  at  the  proper  times.  My!  Think  of  how 
you  would  have  to  hustle  yourself  out  of  one  suit 
into  another  in  order  not  to  break  some  rule  of  naval 
etiquette." 

"  And  think  of  Louis,"  said  Helen,  "  who  can't 
find  his  clothes  in  the  morning  when  he  has  only  one 
suit  to  look  after,  keeping  track  of  all  that.  Why, 
that  is  enough  to  give  a  girl  nervous  prostration, 
to  say  nothing  of  a  boy." 

"  I  guess  I  don't  want  to  enter  the  navy,"  said 
Louis  in  disgust. 

Everybody  roared,  and  then  Randall  said  gravely : 

"  Do  you  know,  beloved,  that  while  I  pray  the 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  109 

Lord  every  day  to  keep  me  from  judging  my  fellow 
men,  I  just  couldn't  for  the  life  of  me  help  passing 
judgment  on  a  civilised  custom  which  keeps  alive  all 
this  war  fuss  and  feathers  and  asking  men  made  in 
God's  image  to  strut  around  in  all  this  gilt  and  lace 
toggery  when  immortal  creatures  are  starving  to 
death  by  the  million  for  the  bread  of  life.  And  I 
just  couldn't  keep  still  when  day  after  day  I  heard 
on  deck  this  naval  fashion  plate  girding  at  men  and 
women  whose  plain  shoes  he  wasn't  worthy  to  black. 
One  day  I  up  and  gave  him  some  real  information 
about  missionaries.  He  had  to  listen,  and  when  I 
got  through,  to  my  great  joy,  a  plainly  dressed 
gentleman  corroborated  what  I  said  and  went  me 
several  better,  saying  that  the  real  awakening  of 
China  and  Turkey  and  Japan  and  India  was  due  to 
the  great  work  done  by  the  missionaries.  During 
his  talk  it  turned  out  he  was  the  British  Consul  at 
Hong  Kong,  quietly  travelling  home  by  way  of 
America.  I  haven't  had  anything  do  me  more  good 
in  years  than  that  little  incident." 

The  Douglas  family  stayed  up  late  that  night  and 
two  nights  following.  Then  Randall  went  to  his 
father's,  to  the  great  regret  of  all. 

Two  weeks  after  that  Felix  Bauer,  who  was  get- 
ting more  out  of  this  visit  at  his  friend's  than  he  had 
ever  experienced  before,  went  into  the  library  and 
sat  down  by  the  long  table.  The  family  was  scat- 
tered, Paul  at  his  office,  Esther  in  the  kitchen,  Wal- 
ter visiting  some  old  friends  out  at  the  college, 
Louis  not  yet  home  from  his  uncle's.  Felix  picked 


110  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

up  a  magazine  and  began  to  read.  He  was  fairly 
started  in  a  story  when  Helen  came  in.  Bauer  in- 
stantly arose  and  bowed  in  his  slow  but  pleasant 
manner.  Helen  went  over  to  a  favourite  seat  of  hers 
in  the  corner  of  the  library  and  sat  down,  looking 
at  Bauer  earnestly. 


CHAPTER    VIII 

FELIX  BAUER  very  seldom  began  a  conversa- 
tion with  anyone  and  on  this  occasion  he  did 
not  venture  to  say  anything  first.  During  his  whole 
stay  in  the  house,  Helen  had  learned  that  fact  about 
his  habits  as  a  talker.  He  was  a  splendid  listener 
and  that  made  him  popular  with  anyone  who  talked 
to  him.  If  you  want  to  be  popular  you  don't  have 
to  be  a  brilliant  talker.  Being  a  brilliant  listener 
is  better. 

But  Helen  had  a  touch  of  her  father's  stubborn- 
ness on  certain  occasions.  She  was  not  in  any  sense 
what  could  be  called  a  flirt,  or  a  girl  who  planned, 
out  of  a  set  purpose,  to  make  a  conquest  or  use  her 
powers  of  attractiveness  to  disturb  the  peace  of  her 
young  men  acquaintances.  But  she  was  vain  to  a 
certain  degree,  and  she  knew  when  she  looked  in  her 
mirror  that  she  was  unusually  attractive,  as  every 
beautiful  woman  knows,  and  Felix  Bauer  was  differ- 
ent from  the  other  young  men  she  knew.  She  said 
to  herself  as  she  looked  across  the  room  at  him  that 
he  was  certainly  no  fashion  plate  and  was  in  fact 
extremely  plain  looking,  all  but  his  eyes,  and  Helen 
acknowledged  that  Walter  was  right  when  he  wrote 
that  Bauer  had  the  most  beautiful  brown  eyes  he 
ever  saw  in  a  human  being.  When  Helen  was  a  lit- 
tle girl  she  had  once  seen  Phillips  Brooks,  and  she 

111 


THE    HIGH    CALLING 

had  never  forgotten  his  wonderful  eyes.  Bauer's 
were  like  that.  She  could  not  help  wondering  what 
sort  of  people  his  parents  were  and  what  his  home 
life  was.  The  stubborn  feeling  prompted  her  to  say 
to  herself,  "  I'll  make  him  speak  first.  He  doesn't 
need  to  be  so  stupid.  And  besides  it  is  not  gentle- 
manly in  him  always  to  wait  for  the  other  person 
to  begin." 

She  was  working  at  some  piece  of  embroidery, 
which  is  an  advantage  in  helping  one  in  situations 
of  possible  embarrassment  to  keep  up  an  appearance, 
at  least,  of  self-possession.  And  the  pattern  being 
a  difficult  one  gave  her  the  excuse  of  keeping  her  eyes 
fixed  on  her  work  most  of  the  time.  She  sat  there 
in  the  corner  absolutely  dumb,  waiting  for  Bauer  to 
speak.  A  noisy  little  clock  on  the  shelf  over  the 
grate  ticked  away  at  least  three  minutes.  Bauer 
opened  his  lips  once  or  twice  as  if  to  say  a  word,  but 
nothing  came  of  it.  He  looked  at  Helen  almost  ap- 
pealingly  and  once  he  seemed  on  the  point  of  leav- 
ing the  room.  But  Helen's  eyes  were  fixed  on  her 
work  and  the  silence  was  unbroken  by  any  movement. 

At  last  Helen  looked  up  after  a  longer  period 
than  any  other,  and  to  her  disgust  saw  that  Bauer 
had  picked  up  the  magazine  he  had  dropped  when 
she  came  in,  and  had  resumed  his  reading,  or  at 
least  seemed  to  have  done  so. 

For  a  minute  she  looked  and  felt  vexed.  "  The 
horrid  creature !  "  she  exclaimed  to  herself,  and  then 
out  loud  she  said  in  a  sweet  voice : 

"Is  that  an  interesting  story  you  are  reading?" 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  113 

Bauer  instantly  closed  the  magazine  and  put  it 
on  the  table. 

"  I  don't  know  yet.     I  haven't  finished  it." 

"  Were  you  going  to  ?  " 

"  Yes,  some  time." 

"  Can't  you  tell  me  what  the  story  is  about?  " 

"  It's  about  two  people,"  said  Bauer  tamely. 

"Is  that  all?"  asked  Helen  after  a  pause  on 
Bauer's  part  of  several  seconds. 

"  They  start  out  with  a  ridiculous  misunder- 
standing and  it  seems  to  be  getting  worse." 

Helen  looked  amused  and  said,  "  Won't  you  go 
on?  " 

"  The  young  woman  thinks  the  young  man  is  in 
love  with  her.  He  isn't  at  all — that  is — not  yet, 
but  he  is  afraid  he  will  be." 

"Afraid?     Is  the  girl  so  bad  looking  as  that?" 

"  No,  she  is  enough  good  looking  to  make  up  for 
both  of  them.  And  he  is  in  some  need  of  it." 

Helen  laughed.  "  These  magazine  stories  arc  the 
most  absurd  things  that  ever  were  printed." 

"  I  think  so  myself." 

"  What  makes  you  read  them  then  ?  " 

"  I  was  just  doing  it  to  pass  the  time." 

"That's  flattering." 

"Flattering?" 

"  Yes." 

Bauer  was  silent  thirty  seoonds.  Then  he  said* 
"Flattering  to  whom?" 

"  To  me,  isn't  it?  " 

Bauer's  face  was  a  study.     Helen  laughed  again. 


114s  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

"  Why  didn't  you  speak  to  me  when  I  came  in  ?  '* 

"  I  didn't  know  you  wanted  to  talk."  Bauer  looked 
actually  hurt. 

"Honest?" 

"  How  could  I  know  you  wanted  to  talk." 

"  A  woman  always  cares,  Mr.  Bauer." 

"  You  seemed  intent  on  your  work  and  I  am  no 
mind  reader." 

"  I  had  made  up  my  mind  not  to  speak  first.  But 
I  broke  my  determination."  The  noisy  little  clock 
made  itself  prominent  during  the  next  half  minute 
and  then  Bauer,  to  Helen's  surprise,  actually  led  off 
with  a  question. 

"  Would  you  tell  me  what  you  are  making?  " 

Helen  held  up  her  work.  "  It's  a  sofa  pillow 
cover.  I'm  making  it  for  Walter." 

Bauer  looked  at  it  gravely.  Helen  would  not 
have  been  surprised  if  any  one  of  a  dozen  of  her 
men  friends  had  said,  "  I'd  give  anything  for  one 
like  it." 

But  Bauer  simply  said,  "  It's  beautiful.  Walter 
is  fortunate." 

"  We  are  all  grateful  for  your  friendship  with 
Walter.  It's  meant  a  great  deal  to  him,"  said  Helen 
with  a  burst  of  frankness. 

"  His  means  everything  to  me.  I  can't  tell  you 
all  it  means." 

Another  period  was  marked  by  the  demonstrative 
clock  and  then  suddenly  Helen  said,  "  Mr.  Bauer, 
I  wish  you  would  tell  me  something  about  your  folks, 
and  your  home." 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  115 

The  simple  question  smote  Bauer  like  a  blow  in 
his  face.  Instantly  he  said  to  himself,  "  Walter  has 
not  told  the  family  about  me,  about  the  disgrace, 
about  the  ruined  home."  And  at  first  he  felt  hurt 
that  Walter  had  not  put  the  family  on  their  guard. 
It  was  not  fair  to  expose  him  to  such  questions. 
How  could  a  girl  like  Helen  Douglas  possibly  be 
made  a  sharer  in  his  tragedy?  His  father  had  been 
a  small  diplomat  at  Washington.  His  mother  a  high 
spirited  American  girl  whose  ambition  had  suddenly 
terminated  on  the  eve  of  her  husband's  promotion 
to  a  higher  post  of  responsibility,  through  a  scandal 
that  involved  both  her  husband  and  herself.  Both 
of  them  were  in  the  wrong,  and  nothing  but  unusual 
effort  on  the  part  of  those  interested  had  kept  the 
affair  out  of  the  papers,  at  least  to  a  great  extent, 
and  besides,  the  numerous  accounts  of  such  home 
tragedies  lessened  the  emphasis  placed  on  this  one, 
so  that  Bauer  knew  that  the  Douglas  family,  out- 
side of  the  editor  himself  and  Walter,  were  not  as- 
sociating him  with  an  event  which  left  him  alone  in 
the  world  to  bear  a  disgrace  that  seemed  at  times 
to  overwhelm  him. 

But  while  Felix  Bauer  was  simple  hearted  and 
clear  souled  as  day  himself,  he  did  possess  to  a  re- 
markable degree  the  power  of  self-possession  and 
self-restraint.  His  soul  had  already  to  a  certain 
degree  learned  the  sad  lesson  of  bearing  disaster 
with  calm  inward  poise.  Whatever  the  tragedy 
might  mean  to  him  in  the  future,  he  was  not  so  poor 
spirited  as  to  let  it  ruin  his  own  development  or 


116  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

poison  the  peace  of  others.  So  he  was  able  to  say, 
after  what  seemed  to  Helen  only  a  natural  hesitation : 

"  My  people  were  both  born  in  Germany.  My 
mother  was  the  daughter  of  the  American  Consul. 
I  was  born  in  this  country.  That  accounts  for  my 
being  so  good  a  patriot." 

"  And  I  suppose  it  also  accounts  for  your  un- 
usually good  use  of  English.  Do  you  know  you 
speak  very  correct  and  pure  English,  Mr.  Bauer?  " 

"No,  do  I?" 

"  Yes,  that  is,  what  little  you  speak,"  said  Helen 
with  a  smile.  "  Do  you  want  to  know  what  I  asked 
Walter  in  one  of  my  letters?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Bauer,  blushing. 

"  I  asked  him  if  you  spoke  broken  English  very 
badly?" 

Bauer  did  not  reply  to  this  and  Helen  came  back 
to  the  question  of  his  home  life. 

"Do  your  folks  live  in  Washington  now?" 

"  Yes,  that  is  " — all  Bauer's  self  restraint  could 
not  avoid  betraying  something,  and  Helen  looked  at 
him  quickly,  and  her  quick  eager  mind  could  not 
avoid  detecting  something  wrong.  She  would  not 
for  the  world  have  been  guilty  of  a  vulgar  curiosity 
or  an  intrusion  into  another's  secret,  and  she  had 
enough  tact  to  say  at  once: 

"  I've  always  wanted  to  go  to  Washington. 
Father  has  promised  to  take  me  some  time.  There 
must  be  a  great  deal  of  happiness  there?  " 

Bauer  looked  at  her,  his  great  eyes  calmly  sad. 
Then  he  quoted: 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  117 

"  '  Gluck  und  Glas  wie  bald  bricht  das  ?  '  " 

Helen  did  not  know  enough  German  to  understand. 

"Would  you  mind  translating?" 

"  *  Happiness  and  glass,  how  soon  they  are 
broken.' " 

"  You  mean  some  kinds  of  happiness,  don't  you?  " 
asked  Helen  timidly. 

"  Yes,  some  kinds." 

"  I  hope  you  have  had  some  of  the  unbreakable 
kind  during  your  visit  here?  " 

"  Yes."  But  down  deep  in  his  quiet  soul  Felix 
Bauer  was  almost  saying  to  himself,  "  Will  it  be  for 
me  the  heart-breaking  kind  of  happiness?" 

After  another  interlude,  which  the  assertive  clock 
took  advantage  of,  Helen  said,  "  I  wish  you  would 
tell  me  something  about  your  work  at  Burrton." 

"  My  work?  " 

"  Yes,  your  shop  work.  Your  invention  work. 
You  know  we  were  all  terribly  disappointed  that 
you  and  Walter  did  not  get  the  patent.  But  there 
are  a  great  many  other  chances  to  discover  things, 
aren't  there  ?  " 

"  Well,  yes.  I  suppose  there  are."  Bauer  began 
to  wake  up  mentally.  His  face  took  on  an  alert  look 
and  the  glow  of  the  born  inventor  enveloped  his 
whole  being.  "  You  see,  Miss  Douglas,  the  field  of 
electricity  is  in  one  sense  limitless.  We  know  so 
little  about  it.  And  I  suppose  it  is  true  that  new 
things  are  possible  to  an  extent  beyond  our  imag- 
ination." 


118  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

"  You  mean  inventions  ?  " 

"Yes?" 

"  That's  what  interests  me  particularly.  I  should 
think  it  would  be  awfully  fascinating  to  find  new 
things." 

Bauer  looked  doubtfully  at  her.  Helen  was  quick 
to  detect  the  slight  hint  of  suspicion  as  to  her  sin- 
cerity. 

"  Do  you  doubt?    What  makes  you?  " 

"  Well,  I — it  isn't  common  for  girls  to  care  much 
about  such  things  generally,  and  I  couldn't 
help " 

Bauer  stumbled  along  painfully  and  finally 
stopped,  and  Helen  was  cruel  enough  to  enjoy  his 
confusion. 

"  But  I  am  interested,  Mr.  Bauer.  I  really 
am.  And  you  must  believe  I  am.  You  will,  won't 
you?" 

"  Yes !  yes !  "  Bauer  flung  the  last  shred  of  his 
doubt  to  the  winds  and  eagerly  begged  pardon  for 
his  distrust. 

"  All  right.  Now  that  we  have  settled  the  quar- 
rel, we  will  be  good  friends,  won't  we  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Bauer,  smiling.  "  If  you  want  to 
call  it  a  quarrel.'* 

"  It  was  a  quarrel  all  right,"  said  Helen  hastily. 
"  Now  you  must  tell  me  what  your  ambitions  are, 
what  you  are  really  working  for.  I  have  wondered 
often  if  it  wasn't  awfully  dangerous  to  be  experi- 
menting with  electricity,  and  how  do  you  try  new 
things  with  wires  and  batteries  and  dynamos  and — 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  119 

and — things  without  getting  killed  several  times 
while  you  are  trying?  " 

"  It's  not  as  dangerous  as  some  other  things," 
thought  Bauer,  as  Helen,  in  her  real  earnestness,  put 
her  work  down  and  came  across  the  room  and  took  a 
chair  by  the  table  opposite  him.  If  she  had  been 
a  real  coquette  intent  on  making  an  onslaught  on 
poor  Bauer  she  could  not  have  chosen  a  more  per- 
fect way  to  do  it.  For  if  you  want  to  engage  the 
hearty  good  will  of  anyone,  ask  him  rapid  fire  ques- 
tions about  the  one  thing  he  is  most  interested  in 
and  would  like  to  talk  about,  if  his  modesty  did  not 
forbid. 

So  Felix  Bauer  was  never  in  so  electrically  dan- 
gerous a  situation  in  all  his  life  as  at  this  moment 
when  Helen  Douglas  came  over  and  sat  down  there 
with  a  real  eagerness  to  know  about  his  ambitions 
as  an  inventor.  For  Helen  was  honestly  interested 
in  many  things  that  naturally  belong  to  mere  man's 
domain,  especially  in  the  realm  of  mechanical  in- 
vention. 

"  Walter  has  told  me  what  you  said  about  making 
a  writing  machine  that  would  take  a  visible  spelled 
word  on  paper  when  you  talked  into  it.  You  don't 
really  think  a  thing  like  that  could  be  done,  do 
you?" 

Bauer  looked  at  the  handsome  quizzical  face  op- 
posite, gravely. 

"  Do  you?  How  do  you  dare  say  what  can  or 
cannot  be  done  in  the  great  universe  of  electric- 
ity?" 


120  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

"  But  it  would  throw  out  a  great  army  of  stenog- 
rapher girls  and  that  would  be  a  pity.  Only,  you 
know,"  said  Helen  demurely,  "  Walter  could  marry 
one  of  them  and  you  could  marry  another.  That 
would  take  care  of  two  of  them." 

Bauer  stared,  and  then  blushed  furiously  and 
finally  laughed. 

"  Walter  has  been  taking  my  name " 

"  Not  in  vain,"  interrupted  Helen.  "  I  thought 
your  suggestion  for  the  talking  machine  was  fas- 
cinating. I  don't  supose  you  are  working  at  that, 
are  you?  " 

"  No.     I  haven't  got  that  far  yet." 

"  Can  you  tell  me  if  you  are  working  on  some  new 
thing?  " 

"  I  don't  mind."  Bauer  got  up  and  pulled  a  piece 
of  paper  towards  him  and  began  to  sketch  some- 
thing. Helen  got  up  and  went  to  the  end  of  the 
table  where  she  could  see  better. 

"  There,  Miss  Douglas.  This  is  my  idea  for  a 
chicken  raiser." 

"  An  incubator  f  " 

"  Yes.  You  see  this  dome  is  glass,  very  much  like 
those  domes  the  glass  blowers  make  to  put  over  their 
glass  ships  and  flowers.  The  bottom  here  is  wood. 
The  eggs  are  placed  on  it  in  even  rows.  Here  is  a 
hole  in  the  bottom  through  which  the  electric  lamp 
is  put.  A  thermostat  will  regulate  the  temperature 
to  a  fraction  of  any  degree.  And — that  is  all  there 
is  to  it  except  to  try  it  on  the  eggs  to  see  if  they  will 
really  hatch  out." 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  121 

"  I  don't  see  how  they  could  help  it !  "  said  Helen 
enthusiastically. 

"  I  don't  either.  There's  only  one  thing  I  can 
see  that  is  essential." 

"  What  is  that  ?  "  Helen  asked  eagerly. 

"  The  eggs  will  have  to  be  good,"  said  Bauer  sol- 
emnly. 

Helen  in  her  eagerness  to  see  the  drawing,  had 
edged  around  the  table  and  her  face  was  near  Bauer's 
as  she  bent  over  the  drawing.  She  stared  at  Bauer's 
solemn  face  a  moment  and  then  burst  out  laugh- 
ing, at  the  same  time  moving  back  to  the  end  of  the 
table. 

"  I  believe  you  are  making  fun  of  me,"  she  said. 
In  reality  there  was  a  part  of  Bauer's  nature  which 
was  unexpected.  His  quiet  habits  and  his  slow 
speech  were  apt  to  give  an  impression  of  dullness  of 
intellect  and  lack  of  mental  quickness.  Helen  was 
finding  out  that  Bauer  was  in  many  ways  the  quick- 
est of  all  her  acquaintances.  And  he  had  a  fund 
of  smileless  humour  that  came  as  a  surprise  even  to 
those  who  thought  they  knew  him  best. 

"  No,  I  was  not  making  fun  of  you,"  said  Bauer. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  he  was  on  the  defensive  with 
his  own  feelings,  trying  by  any  means  to  beat  them 
down  into  the  lonesome  place  where  they  belonged 
when  that  radiant  face  appeared  so  near  his  own. 

"  Have  you  tried  the  machine  yet  to  see  if  it  will 
work  on  good  eggs?  "  asked  Helen,  after  a  pause, 
during  which  Bauer  drew  a  few  more  lines  on  the 
paper. 


THE    HIGH    CALLING 

"  No,  I'm  going  to  make  a  full  trial  of  it  when 
I  go  back  to  Burrton." 

"  And  if  it  should  be  a  success,  I  suppose  there 
would  be  money  in  it  too,  wouldn't  there?  " 

"  I  suppose  so,"  said  Bauer  indifferently. 

"  Then  you  might  actually  become  rich?  " 

"  I  suppose  I  might.  A  man  who  invented  a  lit- 
tle mouse  trap,  I  understand,  made  a  fortune  from 
it.  There  are  all  sorts  of  possibilities  in  the  world 
of  invention." 

"  Would  you  care  to  be  rich?  "  asked  Helen  ab- 
sently. 

"I  might."  For  the  first  time  in  his  life  Felix 
Bauer  had  flash  into  his  soul  the  power  of  money 
to  buy,  what?  Love?  Would  it  be  worth  anything 
if  it  could  be  bought?  And  yet  women  like  Helen 
Douglas  felt  the  power  of  money  and — and — de- 
manded it  in  the  young  man  who  aspired  to  be  a  pos- 
sible wooer  in  this  age.  Was  she  like  all  the  rest? 
And  if  he  should  some  time  be  rich  would  that  make 
any  difference?  And  if  so,  what  difference? 

*'  Money  is  a  great  power  nowadays,"  said  Helen 
calmly. 

"Yes,"  said  Bauer,  slower  than  usual.  And  at 
that  moment  Mrs.  Douglas  came  in. 

"  Are  you  willing  to  show  this  to  mother?  "  asked 
Helen. 

"  Certainly,"  said  Bauer,  smiling.  "  I  am  sure 
she  will  not  betray  my  secret." 

Mrs.  Douglas,  who  had  instantly  taken  a  great 
liking  to  Bauer  from  the  moment  of  his  arrival,  was 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  128 

as  enthusiastic  as  Helen  and  praised  the  inventor 
until  he  was  well  nigh  overwhelmed. 

"  I  need  all  this  encouragement  to  help  me  face 
Anderson.  He  will  probably  pick  some  flaw  in  it 
somewhere.  He  is  merciless  with  all  the  fellows." 

"  I  don't  see  what  a  teacher  is  for,"  said  Helen 
indignantly.  "  Half  of  the  teachers  I  know  pound 
at  the  students  all  the  time  instead  of  giving  them 
encouragement." 

"  They  probably  need  it,"  said  Mrs.  Douglas, 
wisely. 

"  Mr.  Bauer  is  going  to  get  rich  with  his  inven- 
tion," said  Helen  gaily. 

"  I'll  tell  you  what  I  will  do,  if  it  goes,"  said 
Bauer  cheerfully.  "  I'll  divide  with  Walter.  We'll 
manufacture  the  incubator  ourselves  and  so  get  all 
the  profits." 

"  Don't  count  your  chickens  before  they  are 
hatched,"  said  Mrs.  Douglas,  and  then  added  grate- 
fully, "  I  appreciate  that  thought  of  Walter.  The 
poor  fellow  seems  to  have  lost  his  ambition  since 
the  affair  of  the  arc  light.  I  know  you  will  do  all 
you  can  to  encourage  him." 

"  Indeed  I  will,  Mrs.  Douglas.  I  can't  tell  you 
how  much  I  owe  to  Walter.  He  is  like  a  brother 
to  me." 

The  minute  he  uttered  the  words  he  caught  him- 
self up  and  half  turned,  blushing  furiously,  towards 
Helen.  But  she  had  already  started  to  go  out  of 
the  library  and  Bauer  was  not  sure  that  she  had 
heard  him  or  paid  any  attention. 


THE    HIGH    CALLING 

Mrs.  Douglas,  however,  had  seen  his  face  and  his 
half  startled  look  and  deepening  colour,  and  her  own 
face  grew  grave.  It  did  not  seem  possible  to  her 
that  anything  serious  could  happen  to  the  quiet 
German  student  during  his  brief  stay  with  the  fam- 
ily. And  yet,  she  was  a  wise  and  observant  woman 
who  did  not  at  all  blind  herself  to  the  fact  that  her 
daughter  had  natural  gifts  of  physical  and  mental 
attractions,  which  young  men  like  Bauer  inevitably 
feel.  And  it  needed  only  this  one  glimpse  of  Bauer's 
face  to  reveal  to  her  quick  mother's  sense  the  fact 
that  Helen  had  attracted  him,  how  far  or  how  deeply 
for  the  loss  of  his  own  peace,  of  course  she  could  not 
tell. 

It  was  partly  on  that  account  that  Mrs.  Douglas 
welcomed  Helen's  confidence  when,  that  same  after- 
noon, the  girl  came  into  her  mother's  room  and 
after  a  few  moments  of  nervous,  restless  and  aim- 
less talk  came  and  sat  down  on  a  low  chair  near 
Mrs.  Douglass  and  said,  "  Mother,  I  want  a  plain 
talk." 

"  A  plain  talk  "  in  the  Douglas  family  meant  heart 
secrets,  and  Mrs.  Douglas  knew  at  once  what  Helen 
wanted. 

"  Hide  nothing,"  said  Esther,  smiling,  and  pat- 
ting Helen's  head  cheerfully. 

"  Hide  nothing,"  repeated  Helen,  with  a  faint 
smile;  which  meant  that  the  utmost  frankness  was 
going  to  be  shown  on  both  sides. 

"  Mother,"  said  Helen,  after  a  pause  of  some 
length  during  which  her  mother  calmly  went  on  with 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  125 

her  sewing.  "  How  old  were  you  when  you  were 
married?  " 

"  Not  quite  twenty-two." 

"  And  how  old  was  father?  " 

"  Twenty-six.    Almost  twenty-seven." 

"  Were  you  very  much  in  love  with  him  ?  " 

Esther  let  her  work  fall  from  her  hands  into  her 
lap,  and  looked  out  across  the  room  over  her  daugh- 
ter's head.  The  passing  of  the  years  had  not 
dimmed  the  love  light  in  Esther's  eyes  nor  faded  the 
glow  of  the  love  look  on  her  face. 

"  I  can't  tell  you  how  much  I  was  in  love  with  him. 
He  was  the  whole  world  to  me." 

"  More  than  your  own  father  and  mother?  " 

"  Yes,  more." 

"More  and  different?" 

"  Yes,  more  and  different." 

There  was  another  pause  and  Helen  put  her  hand 
up  to  her  mother's.  The  girl  had  not  yet  looked  up. 
Her  eyes  were  cast  down  and  she  seemed  very; 
thoughtful. 

"  Mother,  do  you  think  I  will  ever  feel  that  way? 
As  you  did?  " 

Mrs.  Douglas  was  startled  by  the  question,  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  from  Helen's  babyhood  the 
utmost  frankness  had  existed  between  them.  She 
wanted  a  few  moments  before  she  spoke.  Helen  was 
still  looking  down,  but  her  hand  tightened  its  hold 
on  her  mother's. 

"  Yes,  Helen,  I  would  not  wish  you  any  greater 
happiness  than  to  love  as  your  mother  did." 


126  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

"  But  men  like  father  seem  very  scarce." 

Mrs.  Douglas  could  not  help  laughing,  and  at  that 
Helen  looked  up  soberly. 

"  You  know  they  are,  mother,"  said  Helen  almost 
indignantly.  "  Just  look  at  that  Randolph  boy. 
And — and — Mr.  Damon.  I  don't  believe  there  are 
any  young  men  like  father  was  when  he  was  young. 
Wasn't  he  very  handsome?" 

"  He  certainly  was,  and  he  is  now." 

"  And  didn't  he  talk  sensibly?  Didn't  he  know 
how  to  say  things  ?  " 

"  He  didn't  say  anything  very  wise  or  deep  while 
he  was  courting  me,"  laughed  Esther.  "  I  would 
not  dare  say  how  many  foolish  things  he  said.  I  don't 
remember  all  of  them." 

"  Mother,  you  know  what  I  mean.  The  young 
men  nowadays  can't  talk  any.  They  don't  know 
half  so  much  as  the  young  women.  Why,  I  feel  su- 
perior to  all  the  young  men  I  know." 

Mrs.  Douglas  looked  amused. 

"  And  I  could  never  marry  an  inferior  man.  I 
would  just  despise  myself  and  him,  too.  But  why 
should  I  get  married  at  all,  mother?  Why  can't  I 
just  be  a  physical  training  teacher  all  my  life?  " 

"  I  don't  want  you  to  marry  an  inferior  man.  You 
would  just  despise  yourself  and  if  you  do  not  love  in 
a  natural  way  someone  who  is  altogether  worthy  of 
you,  you  ought  never  to  marry  at  all.  What  has 
made  you  think  of  it?  " 

Helen  did  not  look  up,  and  after  a  long  pause 
Esther  said  gently,  "  Hide  nothing?  " 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  127 

Then  Helen  looked  up  suddenly  and  burst  out: 
"  That  horrid  Mr.  Damon  proposed  to  me  last  night ! 
I  went  with  him  to  the  organ  recital  and  he  was  very 
nice  at  first,  but  on  the  way  home  he  made  a  fool  of 
himself  and  tried  to  make  one  of  me.  I  told  him  I 
wouldn't  marry  him  if  he  was  the  only  man  left. 
Why,  mother,  he  is  ten  years  older  than  I  am,  and 
he  has  false  teeth  and  I  believe  he  wears  a  wig  and 
he  makes  a  living  selling  rubber  goods ! "  And  at 
that  Helen  burst  into  a  flood  of  weeping,  laying  her 
head  down  in  her  mother's  lap. 

When  she  was  cried  out,  Esther  said:  "Mr. 
Damon  is  a  good  man,  or  I  wouldn't  have  let  you  go 
with  him.  But  I  had  no  idea  he  was  thinking  of 
you  that  way.  Of  course  he  is  out  of  the  question. 
Not  on  account  of  the  false  teeth,  the  wig  and  the 
rubber  goods,  for  women  marry  men  with  those  en- 
cumbrances every  day  and  are  happy,  but  for  other 
reasons." 

"  Mother,  did  you  ever  have  any  other  proposals 
besides  father's  ?  " 

"  Yes,  I  had  three  while  I  was  in  college." 

"At  my  age?" 

"  I  was  two  years  younger." 

"  That  makes  me  feel  better  some ;  but  I  don't 
want  such  things  to  come  to  me.  It  frightens  me." 

"  Daughter,  you  probably  know  you  are  more 
than  good  looking.  Do  you?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Helen,  in  a  low  tone. 

"  It  is  a  great  gift,  but  it  is  a  dangerous  one. 
You  must  use  it  in  the  right  way." 


128  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

"  Mother,  I  do  try.  I  am  not  a  flirt,  am  I, 
mother  ?  "  Helen  looked  up  appealingly. 

"Look  right  into  my  eyes,  mother,  and  see?" 

Mrs.  Douglas  looked  and  with  a  sigh  of  relief  saw 
there  as  pure  and  womanly  a  soul  waiting  develop- 
ment as  ever  lived. 

"  No,  thank  God,  Helen,  I  believe  you  realise  what 
your  beauty  might  mean  to  bless  or  to  curse.  But 
sometimes  the  hurt  comes  in  spite  of  one's  self." 

There  was  a  very  long  pause  and  then  Helen  said 
timidly,  "  Mother,  you  are  thinking  of  someone  in 
particular.  I  have  tried  to  be  very  careful.  I  had 
to  be  kind.  But  how  could  I  know " 

"  You  mean  Felix  Bauer?  " 

"  Yes,  mother." 

"  Do  you  mean  he  has  spoken  to  you  in  so  short 
a  time?" 

"  No,  no,  mother,  not  spoken.  Only,  only,  looked 
at  me.  You  don't  blame  me,  do  you,  do  you, 
mother?  " 

Helen  began  to  cry  again,  but  in  a  different  way 
from  the  outburst  before.  She  cried  softly  and  Mrs. 
Douglas  could  feel  the  girl's  hand  pressing  her  arm 
convulsively. 

She  was  really  puzzled  to  know  what  to  say  in 
spite  of  the  evident  fact  that  Felix  Bauer  had  simply 
yielded  to  the  inevitable  through  no  fault  of  Helen's 
or  anybody's.  At  last  she  said: 

"  Do  you  feel  superior  to  Mr.  Bauer?  " 

Helen  raised  her  head  and  blushed  as  she 
looked  up. 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  129 

"  Why,  no,  that  is,  of  course,  he  knows  German 
and  I  don't,  and  he  knows  a  lot  about  electricity  and 
I  don't  and — and " 


"  He's  not  much  of  a  talker,"  said  her  mother. 

"  No,  but  on  that  account  he  avoids  saying  so 
many  foolish  things.  And  he  is  very  interesting, 
and,  and,  good.  But  he  is  only  a  poor  student  and 
it  looks  now  as  if  he  might  grow  up  to  be  nothing 
but  a  manufacturer  of  incubators  to  raise  chickens." 

"  Which  is  almost  as  bad  as  rubber  goods,"  mur- 
mured Esther. 

Helen  did  not  reply.  After  a  while  her  mother 
said,  "  Tell  me  just  one  thing  dear,  if  you  can.  Do 
you  care  for  Mr.  Bauer?  " 

Helen  bent  her  head  and  warm  colour  flowed  over 
her  cheeks,  then  she  looked  up. 

"  No,  mother,  not  that  way." 

Mrs.  Douglas  sighed  and  said  to  herself,  "  Poor 
Bauer.  He  will  have  to  outlive  it  somehow.  I  hope 
his  studies  will  help  him  out." 

That  was  what  Bauer  was  saying  to  himself  back 
in  Burrton  after  that  eventful  Christmas  vacation. 
He  had  parted  with  the  family  in  a  cheerful  fashion, 
but  all  his  self-possession  and  restraint  and  feeling 
of  utter  hopelessness  regarding  Helen  could  not  pre- 
vent his  giving  her  a  look  that  told  his  story  as  plain 
as  day  when  he  said  good-bye.  Helen  had  gone  up- 
stairs and  cried  half  the  forenoon  at  the  memory  of 
Bauer's  face.  But  Bauer  did  not  know  that.  Neither 
did  he  know  that  the  very  fact  of  his  silence  had  made 
Helen  think  favourably  towards  him.  He  had  at 


130  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

least  succeeded  in  securing  a  place  in  Helen's  ex- 
clusive list  of  possible  lovers,  for  she  was  obliged  to 
confess  as  the  days  went  on  that  she  missed  Felix 
Bauer,  and  that  she  could  not  say  of  him  as  she  could 
of  all  her  other  admirers  that  she  was  superior  to 
him. 

It  might  have  gone  badly  with  Felix  Bauer  at  this 
crisis  in  his  life  if  an  event  had  not  occurred  which 
compelled  him  to  come  to  Walter's  assistance.  This 
event  was  as  unexpected  to  Walter  as  anything 
could  be.  And  the  suddenness  of  it  smote  both  the 
friends  for  a  time  into  a  condition  of  mutual  de- 
pendence. 

The  President  of  Burrton  followed  the  custom  in 
other  schools  of  inviting  some  well  known  speaker 
to  have  charge  of  the  chapel  services  for  special  lec- 
tures or  religious  addresses.  When  the  announce- 
ment was  made  that  Dr.  Powers,  the  eminent  scholar 
and  theologian,  would  preach  at  Burrton  on  a  spe- 
cial date,  Walter  and  Bauer  both  planned  to  go,  and 
when  the  time  came  they  found  themselves  in  the 
audience  with  one  of  the  largest  crowds  that  had 
ever  gathered  at  Burrton  Chapel  service. 

The  address  was  on  the  subject  of  "Modern  Be- 
lief." As  the  speaker  went  on,  Walter,  who  had  at 
first  not  paid  close  attention,  began  to  fasten  his 
whole  hearted  and  minded  interest  on  the  statements' 
that  were  being  made.  As  the  talk  went  on,  Walter 
felt  as  if  all  the  ground  of  his  religious  faith  was 
slipping  out  from  under  him.  The  speaker  gradu- 
ally unfolded  a  universe  of  religious  thought  from 


THE    HIGH   CALLING  181 

which  all  the  miracles  were  excluded.  There  was  no 
reason,  he  said,  for  believing  in  the  superhuman  or 
the  wonderful.  Everything  in  the  Bible  could  be 
explained  on  natural  grounds  and  what  could  not  be 
explained  was  either  a  mistake  or  a  misapprehension 
on  the  part  of  the  writers.  God  was  defined  as  a 
power  and  all  personality  taken  from  him.  Christ 
was  only  a  superior  man  who  said  many  things  not 
agreeing  with  the  facts  of  modern  psychology. 
Much  of  his  forecast  of  the  future  had  been  discred- 
ited. There  was  no  such  thing  as  a  resurrection  and 
a  future  existence  was  very  problematical. 

When  the  address  was  over,  Walter  sat  like  one 
dazed  and  did  not  rise  to  go  out.  Bauer  whispered 
to  him: 

"Are  you  sick?" 

"  No,"  said  Walter  with  an  effort.  He  rose  and 
went  up  to  his  room  and  Bauer,  who  did  not  know 
what  was  the  matter,  went  in  with  him,  as  the  two 
friends  invariably  spent  their  Sunday  evenings  to- 
gether. 

But  on  this  occasion  Walter  almost  stunned  Bauer 
with  a  request  made  in  a  low  voice. 

"  I  want  to  be  alone,  Bauer,  if  you  don't  mind." 

Bauer  rose  at  once. 

"  I  am  on  hand  to  serve  you,  Walter.  Don't  for- 
get?" 

"  No,"  Walter  said  abruptly. 

Bauer  went  out,  and  Walter  went  into  his  bed- 
room and  got  down  on  his  knees. 

That  same  evening  at  Milton,  Mrs.  Douglas  had 


132  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

just  gone  up  to  her  room,  and  as  her  custom  had 
been  for  years,  she  had  kneeled  to  pray  for  her  chil- 
dren and  especially  for  her  absent  boy. 

Over  both  mother  and  son  the  darkness  brooded. 
Only  the  stars  shone  through  it. 


CHAPTER   IX 

WALTER  DOUGLAS  was  not  what  would  be 
called  ordinarily  a  religious  young  man. 
That  is,  he  was  not  pious,  in  the  sense  that  he  was 
a  lover  of  prayer  meetings  and  church  gatherings. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  Congregational  church  at 
Milton  and  had  joined  it  from  the  Sunday  School 
when  he  was  twelve  years  old,  growing  up  in  the 
church  like  any  average  boy  whose  father  and  mother 
were  members.  He  had  a  tremendous  respect  for  his 
father's  and  mother's  religious  life  and  example  and 
would  probably  have  been  willing  to  die  for  their 
faith  if  not  for  his  own.  For  the  rest,  he  had  grown 
up  in  the  home  atmosphere,  which  from  his  child- 
hood had  been  deeply  reverent  towards  the  Bible 
and  the  superhuman  element. 

The  effect  on  his  mind,  now,  of  the  address  he  had 
just  heard,  was  very  much  the  same  as  if  someone 
far  above  him  in  education  and  age  had  attacked  his 
father  and  mother,  bringing  forward  a  great  array 
of  argument  and  proof  to  show  that  they  were  un- 
worthy of  his  love  and  confidence.  Walter's  mind 
could  not  have  been  more  disturbed  by  such  an  at- 
tempt than  it  actually  was  by  what  had  been  said 
that  evening,  undermining  his  lifelong  confidence  in 

133 


134  THE    HIGH   CALLING 

Christ  as  a  divine  being,  and  the  superhuman  and 
miraculous  as  part  of  his  own  life. 

He  was  stunned  by  it  and  at  first  his  only  desire 
was  to  be  alone.  As  the  night  wore  on,  this  desire 
gave  way  to  a  longing  for  counsel  from  someone  who 
could  answer  his  questions  and  relieve  his  mind  of 
the  terrible  uncertainty  which  had  invaded  it.  And 
it  was  at  least  a  strange  comment  on  the  teaching 
force  in  the  Burrton  school  that  Walter  at  this  crisis 
could  not  think  of  anyone  to  whom  he  cared  to  go 
with  a  religious  doubt.  There  were  plenty  of  men 
at  Burrton  occupying  responsible  places  as  pro- 
fessors or  instructors  who  knew  plenty  of  mathe- 
matics and  physics  and  electricity  and  engineering 
and  science.  But  not  one  that  Walter  could  think 
of  who  knew  or  cared  about  a  student's  moral  or  re- 
ligious character.  The  president  was  a  keen,  wide- 
awake, sharp  man  of  affairs,  but  as  Walter  thought 
of  him  he  shrank  from  the  idea  of  going  to  him  with 
a  real  heart  trouble  or  with  a  genuine  mental  dif- 
ficulty. He  would  as  soon  have  thought  of  telling  his 
personal  griefs  or  sorrows  into  a  phonograph.  And 
yet  President  Davis  of  Burrton  was  a  church  mem- 
ber, a  highly  educated  gentleman,  a  great  money  get- 
ter from  rich  men,  and  had  the  reputation  in  the 
educational  world  of  being  a  success  as  such  school 
presidents  go.  He  could  extract  half  a  million  for 
Burrton  from  some  great  pirate  of  industry,  but  he 
did  not  know  how  to  extract  a  poisonous  doubt  from 
a  tortured  mind  like  Walter's,  or,  better  yet,  instill 
the  balm  of  healing  faith  into  a  spirit  that  had  for 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  135 

the  time  being  lost  its  God  and  its  heaven.  Great 
thing,  our  boasted  education  is,  isn't  it !  How  many 
of  our  cultured,  highly  developed  university  men  are 
all  head  and  no  heart!  And  yet  in  the  history  of 
this  old  world  who  would  dare  say  that  in  the  long 
run  it  does  not  need  more  heart  than  head,  or  at  least 
an  equal  division  of  each,  for  its  comfort,  its  happi- 
ness and  its  real  progress? 

Walter,  going  over  the  list  of  possible  men  who 
might  help  him  now,  thought  of  the  pastor  of  the 
Congregational  church  in  Burrton.  This  man  was  a 
strong,  earnest  pastor,  a  tireless  worker  and  an  in- 
teresting preacher.  But  here  again  Walter  had  no 
one  to  blame  but  himself  that  he  did  not  feel  well 
enough  acquainted  with  this  man  to  go  to  him  with 
his  personal  religious  questions.  He  had  been  to 
the  church  several  times  and  he  always  liked  the 
Rev.  James  Harris,  but  like  so  many  students  who 
are  attendants  and  workers  in  their  own  churches, 
Walter  on  coming  to  Burrton  had  found  it  easy  to 
lapse  into  lazy  Sunday  morning  habits.  After  he 
had  a  late  breakfast  and  read  the  Sunday  morning 
Daily  Megaphone,  it  was  generally  too  late  to  go  to 
the  Sunday  School  and  it  was  easier  on  stormy  Sun- 
days to  curl  up  on  a  lounge  and  read  a  novel,  or  on 
pleasant  Sundays  to  stroll  out  to  the  lake  two  miles 
away  and  get  an  appetite  for  a  big  dinner.  Then 
an  afternoon  of  sleep  or  visiting  or  walking  out  used 
up  the  rest  of  the  day  for  him.  One  of  the  topics 
he  had  avoided  with  his  mother  on  his  recent  visit 
home  had  been  his  Sunday  program,  and  he  recalled 


136  THE    HIGH   CALLING 

even  now  the  earnest  wish  she  had  expressed  that  he 
would  get  to  work  in  the  Sunday  School  when  he 
went  back  to  Burrton.  No,  he  had  been  so  indiffer- 
ent to  all  church  matters  while  a  student  that  he 
could  not  bring  himself  to  go  to  the  minister,  he  was 
too  much  a  stranger  to  him,  and  this  was  a  matter 
that  seemed  to  call  for  a  friend. 

"  Oh,  I  wish  mother  was  here ! "  he  exclaimed  out 
loud. 

And  then  because  he  felt  so  hungry  for  comfort 
and  so  eager  to  relieve  his  mind  of  its  burden,  he 
went  over  to  his  writing  desk,  and  wrote  a  long  let- 
ter to  his  mother. 

When  he  finished,  it  was  after  one  o'clock  and  he 
went  to  bed  and  slept  as  if  exhausted,  but  to  his  dis- 
may when  he  awoke,  his  depression  and  fear  were 
there  to  greet  him  and  he  found  himself  waiting  for 
his  mother's  answer  almost  as  if  her  letter  were  a 
reprieve  from  a  sentence  of  death. 

A  part  of  this  letter  will  reveal  Walter's  excited 
and  even  chaotic  feeling. 

"  The  bottom  seems  to  be  dropped  right  out  of 
everything,  mother.  Of  what  use  is  it  to  try  to  do 
right  when  there  isn't  any  likelihood  of  a  future  and 
no  personal  God  and  no  Redeemer,  and  no  standard 
for  conduct?  The  doctor  said  we  could  not  depend 
upon  Christ's  own  statements  about  his  own  resur- 
rection. How  then  can  we  trust  Him  for  any  state- 
ment He  made  about  Himself?  The  fellows  here  in 
Burrton  who  have  money  to  spend  and  do  about  as 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  137 

they  please,  the  fast  set  that  drinks  and  carouses  and 
gambles  and  gives  the  chorus  girls  wine  suppers 
seems  to  be  pretty  happy.  They  don't  worry  over 
the  matter  of  sin  or  moral  responsibility  or  going  to 
church  or  getting  serious  over  the  condition  of  the 
heathen  or  the  wrongs  of  the  world,  or  the  *  high 
calling '  you  are  so  fond  of  calling  my  attention  to. 
And  why  should  I  be  any  different  from  them? 
Mother,  does  it  pay  to  be  religious  ?  It  seems  to  me 
religious  people  are  always  sober,  dull  people,  always 
talking  reform  and  disagreeable  things  and  never 
having  much  fun.  But  I  want  you  to  help  me, 
mother,  no  one  else  can,  if  you  can't.  I  don't  seem 
to  be  able  to  pray  any.  Why  should  I  pray,  if  there 
isn't  any  super-human,  nothing  but  a  force  some- 
where? I  am  just  groping  in  the  dark  and  it's  aw- 
ful dark.  And  I  don't  know  a  soul  here  to  help  me 
any.  Bauer — well — I  never  said  a  word  to  him  on 
religious  matters.  I  don't  know  whether  he  is  a 
Catholic  or  what  he  is.  And  I  don't  know  any  min- 
ister in  Burrton  well  enough  to  go  to  him.  And 
the  teachers  here  don't  care  about  the  students'  reli- 
gious life,  or  if  they  do  I  never  saw  any  signs  of  it, 
at  least  not  enough  to  show  where  to  go  now. 

"  Mother,  I  can't  tell  you  how  I  feel  over  all  this. 
But  I'm  just  about  down  and  out.  If  what  Dr. 
Powers  said  is  true,  it  seems  to  me  we  are  living  in  an 
awful  world.  It  isn't  the  world  you  and  father  be- 
lieve in  or  you  taught  me  to  believe  in,  and  I  can't 
understand  it.  Oh,  mother,  help  me,  won't  you,  if 
you  can!  WALTER." 


138  THE   HIGH   CALLING 

Now  his  letter  reached  Mrs.  Douglas  on  the  anni- 
versary of  her  marriage.  She  was  planning  as  she 
always  did  to  make  the  day  bright  for  Paul,  had  in- 
vited her  brothers,  Walter  and  Louis,  and  was  going 
to  make  it  a  great  family  gathering. 

The  boy's  letter  smote  her  heart  as  nothing  in  all 
his  experience  had  ever  troubled  her.  She  managed 
to  get  through  the  evening  without  betraying  her 
feeling,  but  when  her  brothers  had  gone  home,  and 
Helen  and  Louis  had  retired,  she  showed  the  letter 
to  Paul. 

He  read  it  and  then  looked  up  at  Esther. 

"  You  are  the  one  to  help  him  through  this,"  he 
said.  "  You  are  the  only  person  who  can  do  it  right 
now.  But  you  are  tired  with  all  the  events  of  the 
day.  Hadn't  you  better  wait  until  to-morrow  ?  " 

"  No,"  Esther  said  positively.  "  He  is  waiting. 
When  a  soul  is  drifting  down  like  his,  it  is  a  case  of 
rescue." 

"  Dear,"  said  Paul,  quietly,  "  I  don't  have  any 
fears  for  him.  He  has  too  good  a  mother  to  make 
a  wreck  of  his  religion." 

"  He  is  my  son,"  said  Esther  proudly.  "  I  would 
not  be  worthy  of  the  name  mother  if  I  did  not  have 
confidence  in  the  eternal  things  of  redemption.  I 
will  write  him  to-night.  But  you  must  add  to  my 
letter,  Paul.  He  needs  us  both." 

"  I  will,"  said  Paul,  gravely.  He  was  more  dis- 
turbed over  the  letter  from  Walter  than  he  cared  to 
acknowledge  to  Esther,  but  he  managed  to  conceal 
his  feelings  for  her  sake.  Esther  went  up  to  her 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  139 

little  corner  room,  where  she  had  a  sewing  table 
and  a  writing  desk.  When  she  had  shut  herself  in 
there  she  spread  Walter's  letter  out  before  the 
Lord. 

That  meant  that  her  simple  mother  faith  said  to 
God,  "  Oh,  my  Father,  I  need  wisdom  now  to  write 
this  letter.  My  boy,  my  first  born  son  is  in  need  of 
Thee.  But  he  has  turned  to  his  mother  for  help. 
Show  me  how  to  say  the  right  thing.  For  I  can  not 
do  it  without  thy  help." 

And  then  without  any  hesitation  or  fear  of  the 
final  result,  Esther  wrote  to  Walter.  It.  was  a 
sacred  letter,  but  a  part  of  it  belongs  to  this  narra- 
tive. 

"  You  must  not  forget,  boy,"  Esther  went  on  after 
cheerfully  reminding  him  that  he  was  not  the  only 
person  in  the  world  to  have  such  an  experience; 
"  you  must  not  forget  that  religion  is  a  universal 
thing,  and  that  it  is  a  cry  of  the  heart  for  God. 
It  is  not  a  matter  to  figure  out  like  mathematics,  but 
it  is  an  answer  to  the  real  longing  of  the  soul  for  a 
divine  life  in  the  world. 

"  You  must  not  forget,  either,  that  your  faith  does 
not  depend  on  what  someone  else  says,  but  upon  the 
actual  needs  of  your  own  life.  You  know  that  you 
need  God.  You  know  that  you  are  wretched  now 
because  you  are  afraid  God  has  been  taken  away. 
Isn't  that  a  sign  to  you  that  your  simple  faith  as 
you  have  been  taught  it  here  at  home  is  a  real  and 
necessary  thing?  What  Dr.  Powers  said  (and  you 


140  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

must  remember  you  may  not  have  understood  his  full 
meaning),  what  he  said  has  not  changed  the  everlast- 
ing facts  of  sin  and  moral  responsibility  and  the 
facts  of  the  plain  right  and  wrong  of  the  world. 
And  when  it  comes  to  the  resurrection  and  a  future 
life — all  we  can  do  is  to  take  Christ's  word  for  it. 
He  knows  more  about  it  than  Dr.  Powers  knows. 
Your  mother  is  no  theologian  and  no  great 
scholar,  but  when  it  comes  to  taking  Dr.  Pow- 
ers's  word  as  against  Jesus's  own  statements  about 
himself,  I  don't  hesitate,  and  you  ought  not  to. 
Jesus  is  the  way  and  the  truth  and  the  life.  Just 
trust  him.  It  is  what  thousands  of  souls  bigger  than 
yours  have  done  and  they  have  found  the  light  as 
you  will.  We  are  praying  for  you,  father  and  I. 
Father  can  give  you  better  reasons  than  I  can,  per- 
haps, because  he  knows  more,  but  listen  to  me,  boy, 
to  your  mother,  whose  heart  goes  out  to  you  at  this 
time.  You  don't  have  to  answer  all  the  hard  ques- 
tions of  religion  all  at  once.  Some  of  them  can  bide 
for  an  answer.  But,  oh,  plant  your  feet  down  on 
the  rock,  Christ  Jesus !  Abide  with  him  and  your 
soul  will  not  be  lost.  He  will  not  let  you  go  wrong. 
He  came  to  give  you  abundant  life.  The  love  of  God 
is  greater  than  all  other  things.  Trust  simply  and 
don't  be  afraid.  Get  to  work  in  the  Sunday  school 
and  church.  Doubt  can  not  live  in  the  atmosphere 
of  doing  God's  will  every  moment.  Perhaps  one 
reason  you  have  been  so  overthrown  is  because  you 
have  neglected  your  church  and  religious  duties  since 
you  left  home.  Pray;  trust;  act;  live  for  others; 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  141 

listen  for  God's  voice;  be  true  to  the  high  calling. 
It  is  the  only  real  and  living  way  for  you.  And  the 
prayers  of  your  mother  go  out  to  God  for  you  now 
and  always.  Walter,  you  are  God's  child  before  you 
are  mine.  Go  to  him  at  once  and  ask  his  help  as  you 
have  asked  mine.  May  He  bless  you  as  I  can  not. 
Lovingly  and  prayerfully, 

"  MOTHER." 

Mrs.  Douglas  was  so  eager  to  get  her  letter  off 
that  she  did  not  wait  for  Paul's  added  word.  But 
two  days  later  Paul  wrote  quite  at  length,  in  much 
the  same  fashion,  taking  up  one  or  two  points  Esther 
had  not  touched. 

"You  say  in  your  letter  to  your  mother  that 
you  feel  the  bottom  has  dropped  out  of  every- 
thing. Why?  Because  a  stranger  to  you  who 
has  some  reputation  as  a  public  speaker  has  made 
some  statements  which  destroy  your  faith  in  reli- 
gion. 

"  Do  you  think  that  is  a  very  sensible  thing  for 
you  to  do — to  let  a  man  you  have  never  seen  before 
come  along  and  in  one  address  take  from  you  the 
faith  of  years?  Would  you  let  a  man  you  didn't 
know  destroy  your  faith  in  your  mother  so  quickly? 
Would  you  simply  take  his  word  for  it,  because  he 
said  so? 

"  You  must  remember,  Walter,  that  some  of  the 
finest  theologians  and  scholars  in  the  world  believe 
in  and  teach  the  miracles  and  a  personal  God  and  a 


THE   HIGH   CALLING 

personal  divine  Christ  and  a  personal  resurrection. 
I  don't  mean  old  fashioned  scholars,  but  men  who  are 
up  to  date,  who  rank  with  the  best  in  the  thinking 
world.  If  Dr.  Powers  does  not  believe  in  the  resur- 
rection there  are  other  men,  better  scholars  than  he 
is,  who  do.  You  have  no  right  to  let  one  man's 
statements  be  final  for  you. 

"  You  say  again  that  you  don't  see  what  is  the  use 
of  being  good,  and  you  ask  if  it  pays  to  be  religious, 
citing  the  example  of  the  fast  set  in  Burrton,  who, 
you  say,  seem  to  be  pretty  happy,  and  free  from 
anxiety  about  others,  etc.  Walter,  do  you  know 
that  is  the  most  terrible  thing  that  can  be  said  about 
a  human  creature?  That  he  is  satisfied  like  an  ani- 
mal with  an  animal's  appetite  and  passions,  and  care- 
less of  anyone  else  or  of  the  world's  moral  needs? 
The  flies  that  buzz  over  a  battle  field  have  the  same 
indifference  for  the  agony  and  struggle  going  on 
under  them.  And  would  you  even  now  while  under 
the  depression  you  describe,  really  care  to  risk  your 
life  by  becoming  like  the  men  in  the  fast  set?  Don't 
you  know  that  they  are  sowing  the  wind  to  reap  the 
whirlwind? 

"  The  main  facts  of  life  always  remain  the  same. 
We  may  learn  more  about  the  facts,  but  we  can't 
change  the  real  nature  and  needs  of  mankind  by  any 
belief  or  absence  of  belief.  Even  if  there  were  no 
God  and  no  future  and  no  miracles  and  no  Jesus  of 
history,  sin  would  be  sin  and  its  harvest  the  same; 
goodness  and  right  and  virtue  would  always  be  the 
same  and  their  harvest  the  same.  But  men  can  not 


THE    HIGH   CALLING  143 

live  without  God  without  living  in  hopeless  despair. 
Walter,  what  did  Christ  come  into  the  world  for,  if 
not  to  do  for  us  the  very  things  we  really  needed  and 
were  dying  to  get?  He  revealed  God  to  us.  Made 
the  future  plain.  Showed  man  his  duty  to  his  neigh- 
bour. Brought  light  and  life  and  joy  into  the  world. 
The  Christmas  season  we  have  enjoyed  together 
ought  to  show  you  (and  it  will  when  this  cloud  has 
gone  from  your  heart)  that  the  world  owes  more  to 
Jesus  Christ  than  to  any  other  being.  The  best  con- 
ditions in  the  world  are  found  where  Christ  has  been 
most  honoured  and  his  teachings  best  obeyed.  The 
wrongs  of  the  world  are  being  righted  in  his  name. 
And  the  kingdom  of  God  is  taking  the  place  of  the 
kingdoms  of  physical  might. 

"  All  this,  your  father  and  mother  believe,  could 
not  be  true  if  Jesus  were  a  mere  man.  It  is  the 
presence  of  the  divine  and  superhuman,  not  super- 
natural, but  superhuman,  which  has  made  all  this 
redemption  of  the  world  possible. 

"  Walter,  trust  in  God.  Believe  in  Christ.  Pray. 
Seek  the  light.  Keep  doing  right.  Get  to  work  for 
others.  All  the  inventions  in  creation  are  not  worth 
anything  if  your  own  soul  has  no  motive  power  and 
no  track  to  run  on.  Religion  is  as  natural  as  eating 
and  drinking.  Prayer  is  as  natural  as  sleep  or  work. 
And  I  believe  with  all  my  might  that  my  feelings  are 
as  trustworthy  as  my  reason  when  both  are  exercised 
in  a  healthy,  happy  way. 

"  I  haven't  any  fear  for  you.  It  is  too  bad  you 
can  not  get  help  from  some  of  the  teachers  in  the 


144  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

school.  There  must  be  something  wrong  with  the 
management  of  an  educational  institution  when  the 
teachers  know  everything  except  the  moral  needs  of 
the  students. 

"  Can't  your  friend,  Bauer,  help  you?  You  say 
you  have  never  talked  with  him.  Try  it.  From  one 
or  two  talks  I  had  with  him  while  he  was  with  us  I 
gained  the  impression  that  he  was  deeply  religious. 
Affectionately,  your  father, 

"  PAUL  DOUGLAS." 

Both  of  these  letters  reached  Walter  about  the 
same  time  and  he  read  and  reread  them  and  received 
vast  help  from  them,  more  than  he  himself  knew  at 
the  time.  But  he  could  not  throw  off  the  feeling  of 
depression  and  fear  that  seemed  to  haunt  his  spirit. 
He  longed  to  talk  the  thing  over  with  someone  and 
the  day  after  his  father's  letter  came,  he  resolved  to 
take  Bauer  into  his  confidence.  He  had  never  talked 
with  him  on  any  serious  questions  except  when  Bauer 
had  confided  in  him  about  his  home  troubles,  and  the 
occasions  were  rare  and  only  occurred  at  times  when 
Bauer  was  so  tortured  with  lonesomeness  that  he 
could  not  endure  it  any  longer  and  fled  to  Walter  as 
he  did  that  night  in  the  shop,  when  he  first  appealed 
to  him  for  his  friendship. 

They  had  gone  up  to  Walter's  room  together ;  and 
had  just  finished  a  discussion  over  Bauer's  incubator 
and  the  arrangement  for  the  thermostat  when  Walter 
said  suddenly: 

"  Felix,  I  can't  talk  this  stuff  any  longer.     I  want 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  145 

to  take  up  something  else,  if  you  don't  mind.  Of 
course,  you've  noticed  I've  not  been  up  to  the  mark 
lately,  haven't  you?  " 

"  Yes."  Bauer  blushed  as  he  said  it.  He  had  noted 
Walter's  condition,  but  if  truth  be  told  his  own  state 
of  hopeless  feeling  towards  Helen  had  absorbed  him 
to  such  an  extent  that  he  had  not  paid  the  attention 
to  Walter's  feelings  that  he  otherwise  might.  No 
one  quite  so  egotistic  as  your  hopeless  lover.  The 
world  of  Bauer  revolved  around  the  star  of  Helen, 
and  the  rest  of  the  universe,  including  Walter,  was 
for  the  time  being  not  counted  as  there.  With  Wal- 
ter's trouble  now  made  more  apparent  to  him, 
Bauer's  mind  at  once  waked  up  and  stood  ready  alert 
to  listen  to  him. 

"I  might  as  well  confess  that  Dr.  Powers's  ad- 
dress two  weeks  ago  knocked  the  props  out  from 
under  me.  What  he  said  cut  under  me  like  a  great 
engine  that  destroyed  my  faith." 

"  You  mean  your  faith  in  God?  "  asked  Bauer  in  a 
tone  almost  of  horror. 

"  Well,  no,  not  that  exactly.  I  don't  think  any- 
one could  reason  me  out  of  a  belief  in  a  God.  But 
when  Dr.  Powers  got  through  I  felt  as  if  all  the  God 
he  believed  in  was  a  kind  of  electrical  force,  a  little 
bigger  unit  of  amperes.  A  sort  of  international 
ampere,  so  to  speak,  but  not  much  more." 

"  Do  you  mean  that  you  can't  say  *  Our  Father ' 
any  more?  " 

Walter  was  silent  half  a  minute.  When  he  looked 
up  at  Bauer  his  face  was  haggard. 


146  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

"  I  haven't  prayed  any  since  that  address.  What 
is  the  use  of  prayer  if  God  is  a  machine?  " 

"  But  if  God  is  a  machine,  who  made  the 
machine?  " 

Walter  stared.     Bauer  went  on. 

"  And  if  God  is  only  high  power  electricity  or 
force,  who  made  the  high  power  or  force?  One 
machine  can't  make  another.  And  a  machine  that 
really  thinks  and  plans,  is  not  a  machine  but  a  Be- 
ing." 

Walter  did  not  answer.  He  was  brooding. 
Finally  he  said :  "  Do  you  really  believe  in  miracles 
and  the  superhuman  and  the  resurrection  and  future 
and — and  a  Personal  Redeemer  and  all  that?  " 

"Do  I?"  Bauer  did  a  thing  Walter  had  never 
seen  him  do  before.  He  got  up  and  began  to  walk 
the  floor. 

"  If  I  didn't  believe  in  a  personal  God  who  loves 
me  and  in  a  Personal  Redeemer  who  saves  me  and  in 
a  future  life  which  is  going  to  develop  me,  I  might  as 
well  be  just  an  animal  and  be  done  with  it.  What 
advantage  have  we  over  the  animals  if  there  is  noth- 
ing to  it  but  flesh  and  blood  and  eating  and  drinking 
and  dying? 

"  But  I  simply  take  my  stand  on  what  Jesus  did 
and  said  and  was.  I  don't  go  back  on  that  to  try  to 
philosophise  much,  though  I  can  give  answers  all  day 
long  for  my  religious  faith.  I  wouldn't  give  any- 
thing for  it  if  I  couldn't  reason  it  out.  I've  been 
through  all  the  books — Kant  and  Hegle  and  Straus 
and  Feuerbach  and  Schopenhauer  and  Schleier- 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  147 

macher  and  no  end.  My  father  was  steeped  in  all 
the  old  world  philosophies.  I  don't  think  they  ever 
helped  him  any.  At  least  not  to  make  a  better  man 
of  him.  Why,  Walter,  do  you  know  your  father 
and  mother  are  the  products  of  Christian  faith,  and 
there  isn't  anything  finer  in  all  the  world.  Where 
would  you  go  to  find  a  human  being  who  was  nearer 
the  perfection  of  all  noble,  unselfish,  beautiful  traits 
of  character  than  your  mother,  who  is  the  product  of 
a  simple  Christian  faith? 

"  My  father  and  mother  have  always  sneered  at 
simple  faith.  They  are  sceptics.  What  has  their 
scepticism  ever  done  for  them?  To-day  they  are 

both "  Bauer  choked,  and  after  a  long  pause, 

during  which  Walter  looked  at  him  sympathetically, 
he  said  quietly: 

"I  had  to  have  something  different  from  their 
Godless  scheme  of  life  or  I  believe  I  would  have  gone 
mad.  And,  thank  the  Father,  I  found  it.  If  I 
hadn't  I'd  been  worse  than  the  fastest  of  the  fast  set 
here.  I  wouldn't  have  stopped  short  of  the  vilest. 
I  would  have  been  a  crowned  head  of  beastliness. 
And  nothing  saved  me  from  it  but  Jesus  Christ. 
Could  a  man  have  done  that?  Could  anyone  have 
done  it  who  didn't  believe  in  a  future  and  a  spiritual 
life?" 

Bauer  came  back  to  his  chair  and  sat  down.  Wal- 
ter seemed  much  impressed  by  what  he  said  and  the 
way  he  said  it.  At  last  he  remarked  thoughtfully : 

"  You  never  told  me  anything  of  this  before.  I 
never  understood  you  felt  so,  or  had  such  a  faith." 


148  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

"No,  I've  kept  my  light  under  a  busheL  But 
man's  religion  is  the  most  sacred  thing  about  him. 
Why  don't  we  talk  more  about  it?  I  don't  know 
unless  with  me  it's  been  an  excess  of  sensitiveness." 

"  I  understand  and  thank  you,  Felix,"  said  Walter 
after  another  long  silence. 

During  the  days  that  followed  he  had  many  more 
talks  with  Bauer,  all  of  which  did  him  vast  good. 
Bauer,  once  he  had  opened  the  door  of  his  soul,  threw 
away  all  reserve  and  invited  Walter  into  the  very 
holy  of  holies. 

They  also  had  plenty  of  argument.  But  Walter 
was  no  match  for  the  German  student,  who  in  his 
long  hours  of  solitary  existence,  had  managed  to  do 
an  astonishing  quantity  of  reading  and  posted  him- 
self on  all  sorts  of  difficult  subjects  with  the  German 
habit  of  exactness  and  thoroughness  in  matters  of 
detail,  so  that  he  soon  had  Walter  hopelessly 
beaten  when  it  came  to  debate  over  religion  and  its 
office. 

Finally  Walter  began  slowly  to  regain  his  buoy- 
ancy and  before  the  spring  vacation  he  had  found  a 
standing  place  for  his  faith  and  a  reason  for  his 
religion,  so  much  so  that  he  said  to  Bauer  one  Sun- 
day evening  after  they  had  come  up  to  the  room 
after  hearing  Mr.  Harris  at  the  church :  "  Felix,  I 
almost  believe  I  could  be  a  preacher.  I  believe  I  al- 
most have  a  message." 

Bauer  was  immensely  pleased. 

"  You  are  going  to  come  out  all  right.  You 
couldn't  help  it  with  such  a  mother." 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  149 

And  yet,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  at  that  very 
moment  Walter's  mother  was  passing  through  a 
crisis  that  was  testing  her  Christian  faith  even  more 
severely  than  Walter's  had  been  tested.  There  could 
be  no  doubt  at  all  but  that  Esther's  pure  and  stead- 
fast soul  would  win  the  victory;  but  oh,  the  heart- 
ache of  sorrowing  motherhood!  Will  it  ever 
cease? 

Louis  Douglas  had  been  for  several  months  a 
source  of  anxiety  to  both  Paul  and  Esther.  As 
winter  wore  on  he  complained  more  and  more  of 
school.  One  evening  he  broke  out  in  such  a  torrent 
of  appeal  to  his  father  to  let  him  give  up  his  studies 
that  Paul  compelled  himself  to  think  of  the  boy  as 
his  first  duty  and  reproaching  himself  that  he  had 
paid  little  heed  to  him  on  account  of  political  mat- 
ters, he  listened  to  Louis  that  evening  and  in  a  pause 
of  his  flood  of  words  asked  the  boy  to  come  into  the 
library  and  have  it  out  seriously. 

The  legislature  was  in  session  and  Douglas  was 
overwhelmed  with  committee  work,  with  shaping  up 
bills,  and  winning  converts  to  his  ideas  of  reform. 
He  had  anticipated  opposition  and  difficulties  of 
various  sorts,  but  the  actual  thing  that  confronted 
him  was  so  much  greater  than  he  had  supposed  pos- 
sible that  he  almost  let  go  at  one  time,  in  disgust, 
and  vowed  he  would  never  enter  politics  again.  Next 
day  he  was  back  in  the  game  to  stay.  But  from 
the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  legislative  session  he 
was  blocked  in  nearly  every  effort  he  made  for  clean, 
honest  reform  of  old,  corrupt  and  selfish  party  de- 


150  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

vices.  In  his  soul  he  knew,  and  those  who  knew  him 
inew,  that  he  was  heart  and  soul  for  the  good  of  the 
people.  The  measures  he  wanted  put  into  law  had 
no  possible  self-seeking  in  them.  He  was  clean  and 
upright  in  every  detail  of  his  private  and  public  life, 
yet  he  faced  every  day  facts  like  these : 

The  other  paper  in  Milton  contained  columns  of 
abuse,  of  misrepresentation  and  of  downright  charges 
of  self-seeking  against  him.  Man  after  man  in  the 
party  that  had  asked  him  to  run  for  Senator  came 
to  him  to  beg  him  to  desist  from  his  fight  on  corpora- 
tions that  broke  the  laws  and  charged  the  people 
prohibitive  prices  for  the  necessities  of  life.  Party 
worshippers  like  the  Hon.  Mr.  Maxwell  besieged  the 
committee  room  pleading  for  harmony,  meaning  by 
"  harmony,"  a  slavish  compromise  with  the  greed  and 
influence  of  money  and  power  that  might  help  the 
party  if  they  were  let  alone.  Letters  flooded  him 
from  all  parts  of  the  state  begging  him  or  threaten- 
ing him  to  leave  well  alone.  Some  of  the  very 
men  who  had  during  the  election  campaign  promised 
to  stay  with  him  and  help  push  his  bills,  lied  outright, 
broke  their  promises  and  called  him  a  deserter  and  a 
party  traitor.  Old  friends  who  had  stood  by  him  for 
years,  left  him  and  in  some  cases  became  his  bitterest 
enemies.  Bill  after  bill  framed  with  only  one  great- 
hearted purpose  to  benefit  all  the  people  went 
through  the  grinding  process  of  detraction,  of  villifi- 
cation,  of  amendment  and  final  defeat.  A  little 
handful  of  members  rallied  around  him.  But  the 
greed  forces  of  the  entire  state  were  on  the  other 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  151 

side.  The  selfish  corporations,  the  highwaymen  of 
commerce,  the  whiskey  powers  fighting  for  their  lives 
to  maintain  the  license  system  of  the  state,  the  gang 
of  thugs  that  lived  on  the  gambling  house  and  the 
barter  in  human  blood  in  the  sale  of  virtue  and  the 
degradation  of  boys  and  girls,  all  fought  him.  The 
newspapers  that  print  liquor  and  other  questionable 
advertisements,  the  miscroscopic  men  who  made  a 
living  by  appointment  to  little  political  dirty  jobs, 
the  horde  of  hungry  office  seekers  who  didn't  know 
"  America  "  from  the  latest  vaudeville  rag-time,  the 
plunderers  of  the  treasury  who  live  without  any  visi- 
ble means  of  support  except  what  they  boldly  stole 
from  contracts  on  public  works,  the  princely  robbers 
who  are  the  crowned  heads  of  special  privilege,  whose 
wives  and  daughters  figure  in  the  society  columns  as 
leaders  in  those  useful  callings  of  bridge  whist  and 
select  receptions,  the  great  and  ignorant  mob  of 
pygmies  who  never  had  the  capacity  for  a  political 
idea  bigger  than  their  own  diminutive  measurement, 
the  newspaper  and  magazine  hacks  who  live  on  abuse 
of  everybody  who  has  a  high  ideal,  all  joined  in  the 
whoop  and  chase  after  Douglas  of  the  fourth  district, 
branded  him  as  a  fakir,  an  idiot,  a  senseless  dreamer, 
an  egotist,  a  demagogue,  a  party  traitor,  a  knocker, 
and  every  other  objectionable  kind  of  disturber  of 
the  peace,  meaning  by  "  peace,"  the  peace  of  those 
who  are  let  alone  by  reformers  to  rob  the  state,  de- 
grade politics,  enthrone  injustice,  keep  the  party  in 
power  and  re-elect  themselves. 

And  this  is  the  kind  of  thing  the  preacher  urges 


162  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

his  high-spirited  young  men  to  confront  if  they  go 
into  public  careers.  Do  you  think  American  politics 
could  be  made  more  attractive  to  the  strong  men  of 
this  nation  if  some  of  the  abuse  and  personal  sewer 
methods  were  eliminated?  Do  you  think  all  this  gut- 
ter spattering  is  necessary  to  reach  conclusions  and 
arrive  at  a  final  better  condition  for  the  nation's  life? 
Do  you  think  that  even  if  discussion  and  defence  of 
opinion  are  necessary  in  the  settlement  of  great  pub- 
lic affairs,  it  is  also  in  order  to  question  a  man's  pur- 
ity of  purpose,  his  patriotism  and  his  personal  devo- 
tion to  a  great  ideal? 

Paul's  whole  nature  was  stirred  by  what  he  was 
going  through  and  his  absorption  in  the  matters 
nearest  his  heart  was  so  complete  that  it  was  with  no 
ordinary  shock  he  came  to  realise  that  his  own  son 
was  in  a  critical  condition.  As  a  father  he  re- 
proached himself  for  neglecting  the  boy  under  the 
plea  of  trying  to  reform  the  state.  And  when  he 
began  to  question  Louis  that  night  he  rapidly  noted 
the  lad's  physical  condition  and  took  account  of  his 
manner  which,  the  more  he  studied  it,  was  not  at  all 
reassuring. 

"  Tell  me,  now,  Louis,  what  you  want.  Begin  at 
the  beginning  and  hide  nothing." 

Louis  looked  sullenly  at  his  father. 

"  You  haven't  time  to  listen  to  me.  You  never 
have." 

"  Yes,  I  have.  Ill  take  it."  Paul  felt  more  self- 
reproach  every  minute  he  eyed  Louis.  And  as  he 
looked  at  him  he  could  not  help  thinking  of  how  much 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  153 

the  boy  resembled  in  many  ways  Esther's  brother 
Louis,  who  used  to  give  him  such  concern. 

"Well,  father,  I  want  to  quit  High  School.  I 
don't  like  it.  I  hate  it." 

"  Why?  Tell  me  honestly  now.  I  can't  help  you 
unless  you  give  me  the  real  facts." 

"  I  don't  like  the  teachers.  They  nag  me.  I  hate 
them." 

"  Hate  them  ?     You  mean  all  of  your  teachers  ?  " 

"  Well,  most  of  them.  They  criticise  me  and  make 
fun  of  me.  Miss  Barrows  showed  what  I  wrote  about 
tuberculosis  to  every  other  teacher  in  the  school." 

"  Go  on,"  said  Paul,  after  a  pause. 

"  I  can't  get  the  English.  I  don't  understand  the 
long  definitions.  I  am  not  cut  out  for  a  scholar." 

"Have  you  tried?" 

"  Yes,  I  have.  But  the  harder  I  try,  the  worse  it 
is." 

"  What  lessons  are  you  carrying?  " 

"  English,  algebra,  physics,  manual  training,  Ger- 
man and  chemistry." 

"  Tell  me  now,"  said  Paul  good-naturedly,  "  which 
one  of  all  these  studies  you  hate  the  least." 

Louis  laughed.     "  I  don't  like  any  studies." 

"  But  which  one  would  you  choose  first  if  you 
couldn't  help  yourself?  " 

"  Manual  training." 

"  What  do  you  do  in  that?  " 

"  Oh,  I  plane  and  saw  and  glue  up  boards  and 
make  things." 

"What  things?" 


154  THE    HIGH   CALLING 

Louis  hesitated.     "  You'll  laugh." 

"  No,  I  won't."  Paul  felt  more  like  crying  than 
laughing  as  Louis  eyed  him  doubtfully. 

"  Great  God !  "  he  felt  like  saying  to  himself. 
"  Here  I  have  been  so  busy  with  everybody  else's 
affairs  that  my  own  son  is  afraid  of  me." 

"  Well,  I  finished  a  writing  desk  the  other  day.  I 
was  going  to  give  it  to  mother  for  her  birthday.  I 
brought  it  home  last  night." 

"  A  writing  desk !     Let  me  see  it." 

"  It's  in  my  room,"  Louis  said  with  some  hesita- 
tion. 

"  I  want  to  see  it,"  said  Paul.  He  rose  to  go  up 
stairs  and  had  got  as  far  as  the  hall  when  the  tele- 
phone rang. 

"  Go  on.  I'll  come  as  soon  as  I  answer  this,"  Paul 
said,  and  Louis  hurried  up  stairs  as  if  he  wanted  to 
get  there  some  time  before  his  father. 

The  man  at  the  other  end  of  the  telephone  wire 
was  an  angry  committeeman  at  the  State  House. 

"  I  say,"  he  exclaimed  in  a  strident  voice  that 
clanged  into  the  receiver  like  a  personal  insult. 
"  When  are  you  coming  down?  We've  been  waiting 
here  over  an  hour." 

Paul  made  a  lightning  decision  and  answered.  "  I 
can't  come  down  to-night.  I  have  a  very  important 
engagement  elsewhere." 

"  Elsewhere !  "  snorted  the  irate  committeeman. 
"  Why,  you  made  this  a  personal  meeting.  You've 
got  to  come  down.  I  can't  hold  Rogers  to  our  plan  if 
you  don't  come.  And  Alvard  is  on  the  fence.  We 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  166 

lack  just  enough  to  make  a  majority.  This  is  your 
pet  measure.  Are  you  going  back  on  it?  " 

"  I  can't  come  down  to-night.  Put  it  through 
among  you.  If  you  really  mean  business  you  don't 
need  me.  Stand  by  the  bill  at  all  costs." 

The  committeeman  broke  in  with  an  oath :  "  All 
costs !  It's  your  bill.  If  you  desert  it  now  at  this 
pinch,  it  is  down  and  out.  I  can't  look  after  your 
fences." 

The  receiver  at  the  other  end  went  up  with  a  bang 
and  Paul  realised  that  another  one  of  his  cherished 
measures  had  received  its  coup  de  grace.  Partly, 
he  said  to  himself  as  he  started  up  to  Louis's  room, 
on  account  of  the  half  hearted  action  of  those  who 
called  themselves  friends.  What  friends !  Rabbits ! 
Cowards !  Self  seekers !  Real  friends  could  have 
managed  that  bill  without  his  presence  and  there  was 
a  show  for  it  owing  to  its  popular  character,  if  any- 
one would  push  matters  with  energy  and  intelligent 
enthusiasm.  "  But  was  it  his  duty  always  to  neglect 
his  own  children  even  for  service  to  the  state?  "  He 
said  "  No  "  as  he  went  along  up  and  into  Louis's 
room. 

He  had  seldom  been  into  the  boy's  sanctum,  and  as 
he  came  in  now  he  was  curious,  and  interested  in  what 
he  saw.  Louis  had  employed  the  interval  of  his 
father's  presence  to  pick  a  number  of  things  up  off 
the  floor  and  what  he  did  not  have  time  to  throw  on 
top  of  the  bed  he  had  kicked  under  it,  so  the  room 
presented  a  fairly  respectable  outward  appearance. 

He  had  pulled  the  writing  desk  out  into  the  middle 


156  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

of  the  room  and  as  his  father  stopped  in  front  of  it 
he  said  suddenly :     **  There  it  is,  now  laugh." 

Paul  was  simply  astonished  when  he  examined  the 
article.  To  be  sure,  all  the  joints  on  it  were  not  per- 
fect by  any  means  and  one  of  the  legs  looked  a  little 
out  of  plumb.  But  as  a  whole  the  writing  desk  was 
so  creditable  a  piece  of  work  that  he  could  not  help 
saying,  "  I  call  that  pretty  fine.  Mother  will  be  tre- 
mendously pleased.  You  made  it  all  yourself?  " 

"  Yes,  all  but  this  little  bit  of  carving.  That 
Johnson  started  me  on.  The  rest  of  it  is  mine." 

"  It's  mighty  good,"  said  Paul,  walking  around  it. 
"  Straighten  that  leg  out  by  amputating  it  just  be- 
low the  knee  and  it  will " 

"  Yes,  I  knew  you  would  laugh  at  me.  All  the 
teachers  do,"  wailed  Louis. 

"  No,  I'm  not  laughing  at  you,  Louis.  You  have 
done  splendid  work.  But  you  mustn't  feel  badly  to 
have  your  faults  pointed  out.  That  is  the  way  to 
learn.  If  you  hadn't  been  in  quite  such  a  hurry  you 
would  have  made  a  better  job,  wouldn't  you?  Your 
fault,  one  of  your  faults,  is  lack  of  patience  and 
thorough  painstaking  over  details.  Isn't  that  so  ?  " 

"  It  must  be.     All  my  teachers  say  so  all  the  time." 

"  Well,  if  they  say  so  all  the  time  there  must  be 
some  reason  for  it.  But  honest,  now,  the  writing 
desk  is  not  a  bad  piece  of  work  viewed  as  a  whole." 

Louis  felt  somewhat  mollified  and  after  his  father 
had  made  one  or  two  more  comments  they  started 
down  stairs.  When  they  reached  the  hall,  the  tele- 
phone rang  again. 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  157 

"  Go  into  the  library  and  wait  for  me,"  Paul  said 
as  he  went  to  the  instrument. 

This  time  it  was  Rogers,  the  doubtful  member  of 
the  committee.  He  wanted  to  ask  one  or  two  ques- 
tions about  the  bill  and  Paul  quickly  and  eagerly 
answered  him. 

"  But  we  need  you  right  here  now.  We  can't  do 
anything  without  you.  Burke  is  mad  and  we  can't 
depend  on  him.  You've  just  got  to  come  if  you  want 
to  see  the  thing  through." 

"  I  can't  come,  Rogers.  You  can  whip  them  into 
line."  Paul  rapidly  shot  directions  at  him. 
"  Stand  by  the  thing  for  my  sake  if  not  for  the  sake 
of  the  bill.  Don't  go  back  on  your  promise." 

"  Promise !  What's  become  of  yours?  The  thing 
is  impossible  without  you.  I  can't  do  anything  with 
Burke  and  the  rest  of  the  committee  are  hot  over 
your  absence.  Don't  blame  anyone  but  yourself 
when  you  read  the  morning  paper." 

Paul  started  to  answer,  but  the  committeeman  had 
finished,  and  after  hesitating  over  the  matter  he  went 
into  the  library  and  resumed  his  questions  with 
Louis. 

"  After  the  manual  training,  which  one  of  your 
studies  do  you  take  to  most?  " 

"  Oh,  I  don't  like  any  of  them.  Chemistry,  I 
guess." 

"  Do  you  like  mathematics  ?  " 

"I  don't  mind,  but  I  want  to  go  into  business, 
father.  I  want  to  quit  school  altogether  and  go  into 
business." 


158  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

"What  business?" 

"  Any  kind.     I  want  to  make  money." 

"  What  do  you  want  to  make  money  for  ?  " 

"What  does  anyone  want  money  for?  I  want  to 
buy » 

"  Go  on.     Tell  me  exactly." 

"  Well,  clothes  and — and — I  want  things,  so  I 
can  go  out  and  be  with  other  fellows,  and  have  some- 
thing to  spend — and " 

In  his  burst  of  unconcealed  eagerness  to  get  out 
of  school  Louis  was  really  revealing  to  his  father 
some  of  the  actual  reasons  for  wanting  to  give  up 
his  studies,  and  as  Paul  listened  to  him  he  felt  that 
the  boy's  eagerness  went  even  farther.  He  deter- 
mined to  be  very  frank  with  him  and  get  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  thing  if  possible. 

"  Do  you  want  to  make  money  so  as  to  go  with 
the  girls  and  get  popular  with  them  and  spend 
money  on  them?  " 

The  question  was  almost  brutal  in  its  directness, 
and  one  that  his  father  had  never  before  suggested. 
Louis  reddened  with  an  angry  but  self-conscious 
manner  that  told  Paul  he  had  not  guessed  very  wide 
of  the  real  motive  that  was  urging  the  boy. 

He  did  not  answer  the  question  but  sat  sullenly 
tearing  bits  of  paper  from  the  leaves  of  a  magazine 
on  the  table.  And  his  father  sat  silently  staring  at 
him,  wondering  how  he  was  going  to  manage  Louis 
and  help  him  to  make  a  possible  manhood  for  him- 
self. The  problem  across  the  library  table  in  this 
boy  of  his  was  even  a  greater  problem  than  the  one 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  159 

down  at  the  State  House.  He  could  afford  politic- 
ally to  lose  the  bill.  But  could  he  afford  parent- 
ally to  lose  the  boy? 

"  You  needn't  answer  my  question,  Louis,  you  have 
answered  it.  Now  listen  to  me.  I  am  your  father 
and  next  to  your  mother  I  love  you  more  than  any- 
one else  in  all  the  world.  Do  you  believe  that?  " 

"  I  suppose  so,"  Louis  managed  to  say. 

"  You  know  it,  Louis.  There  is  no  guess  work. 
You  are  sixteen.  You  have  fairly  good  health  and 
more  than  average  brains.  The  main  business  in 
your  life  for  the  next  ten  years  ought  to  be  study 
and  education.  The  girls — society — all  that — do 
you  want  to  make  a  fool  of  yourself  and  miss  the 
one  thing  of  manhood  that's  worth  getting?  If  you 
do,  I  don't  for  you.  I  am  several  years  older  than 
you  are,  Louis.  And  I  am  your  father  for  the  pur- 
pose, as  I  believe,  of  really  being  worth  something  to 
you  in  the  matter  of  counsel  and  direction  for  your 
voyage  over  life's  great  ocean.  If  you  are  planning 
to  start  out  without  a  compass  or  the  right  kind  of 
equipment  I  would  be  worse  than  a  fool  if  I  didn't 
prevent  such  a  voyage,  wouldn't  I?  Well,  I  don't 
intend  to  let  you  do  just  as  you  please  just  because 
for  the  time  being  you  choose  to  go  your  own  gait. 
Mind,  Louis,  I  am  not  going  to  ask  you  to  do  im- 
possible things  or  be  tyrannical  with  you.  But 
neither  do  I  intend  that  you  should  throw  away  a 
splendid  chance  for  education  just  to  gratify  a  pres- 
ent longing  to  make  money  for  the  purpose  you  want 
it  for," 


160  THE    HIGH   CALLING 

The  telephone  rang  again  at  this  point  and  Paul 
went  over  to  it. 

Burke  had  come  to  the  instrument  again. 

"  We  can't  agree  on  the  bill  in  its  present  shape 
and  it's  simply  impossible  to  put  it  through  in  your 
absence.  You  are  being  judged  by  all  the  commit- 
tees and  some  of  them  don't  hesitate  to  say  you  are 
being  bought  out.  If  you  come  down  now  you  may 
be  able  to  save  it.  But  we  are  on  the  point  of  kick- 
ing the  bill  out  or  reporting  adversely.  Can't  you 
come  down  within  an  hour?  " 

"  I  can't  promise.  I  have  a  very  important  en- 
gagement here.  I  might  be  able  to  get  down  by 
midnight,  but  wouldn't  promise." 

"  Midnight !  The  members  are  dead  tired  now. 
Rogers  is  asleep  in  his  chair  and  Colfax  is  dozing 
on  the  lounge.  If  you  don't  come  within  an  hour 
you  needn't  come  at  all." 

"  I  can't  come  within  an  hour." 

"  What  is  it?     A  matter  of  life  and  death?  " 

"  Yes,  a  matter  of  life  and  death,"  Paul  answered 
slowly. 

"  Oh,  very  well.  Then  the  old  bill  is  dead,  that's 
all.  It's  not  a  matter  of  question." 

And  Paul  could  picture  Burke  as  with  an  incred- 
ulous sneer  he  hung  up,  and  told  the  committee  to 
clear  out  and  go  to  bed. 

He  went  back  into  the  library  and  sat  down  by 
Louis  and  put  his  arm  around  his  shoulder  and  rea- 
soned with  him  as  he  had  never  in  all  the  campaign 
reasoned  with  a  political  acquaintance  for  the  pur- 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  161 

pose  of  winning  his  friendship.  He  showed  the  boy 
clearly  what  it  meant  to  lose  an  education,  what  a 
handicap  it  would  be  to  him  all  his  life  if  he  did  not 
have  the  schooling  and  culture  that  history  and 
language  and  science  stood  ready  to  give.  He  pic- 
tured to  Louis  the  tremendous  advantages  that  go 
with  education  in  the  social  life  of  the  world  and  cited 
numerous  instances  in  the  range  of  his  own  expe- 
rience to  show  Louis  what  a  prize  he  was  throwing 
away  at  the  age  of  sixteen  if  he  deliberately  threw 
away  the  riches  of  mental  power  for  the  dirt  of  lust 
and  mammon.  He  got  hold  of  Louis  as  he  never  had 
before,  because  he  divined  the  really  impure  and  fool- 
ish motive  the  boy  had  for  going  into  business,  and 
as  the  minutes  ticked  into  hours  Louis  gradually  be- 
came convinced  of  certain  things  which  he  had  only 
vaguely  entertained  so  far. 

In  the  first  place  he  began  to  have  a  feeling  that 
his  father  did  care  for  him  tremendously  after  all. 
Paul's  absorption  in  politics  for  the  last  year  had 
been  so  deep  that,  as  has  been  said,  he  had  neglected 
the  boy's  interests  and  had  not  paid  attention  to  his 
frequent  complaints  and  appeals.  But  now  that 
the  matter  was  squarely  met,  Louis  knew  from  what 
he  caught  of  the  telephone  dialogue  that  his  father 
was  neglecting  a  very  important  political  affair  to 
spend  the  entire  evening  with  him.  The  thought 
added  to  the  feeling  he  began  to  have  of  his  father's 
real  character.  Then  Louis  had  all  his  life  had  the 
greatest  respect  for  his  father's  intellectual  life  and 
regarded  it  with  admiration.  He  was  fond  of  quot- 


162  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

ing  him  and  there  was  no  one  in  Milton  who  read 
Douglas's  editorials  more  regularly  and  carefully 
than  Louis. 

And  added  to  all  the  rest  that  influenced  him  that 
night  was  the  shame  he  began  to  feel  that  his  father 
knew  his  real  motive  for  wanting  to  leave  the  school 
and  make  money.  He  had  become  fascinated  and  led 
away  by  a  certain  set  in  the  High  School  and  he 
wanted  to  go  with  them,  wear  expensive  clothes,  fre- 
quent society  functions  and  spend  freely  and  get  the 
reputation  of  a  generous  and  even  lavish  giver. 
This  he  could  not  do  with  the  allowance  his  father 
gave  him,  and  he  chafed  under  it  foolishly.  He  had 
not  supposed  his  father  would  detect  his  underlying 
motive  in  his  longing  to  quit  school  and  go  into 
business.  Now  that  he  realised  his  father  did  un- 
derstamd  he  felt  ashamed  to  continue  his  plea  as 
he  had  first  made  it.  At  the  end  of  the  evening  to- 
gether, a  certain  definite  agreement  was  reached  be- 
tween father  and  son. 

Louis  agreed  to  continue  his  studies  for  another 
year  and  do  his  best  with  those  branches  he  found 
most  difficult  where  he  was  not  allowed  to  choose 
electives.  His  father  agreed  to  study  with  him  in 
a  regular  course,  helping  him  through  hard  places, 
practically  being  his  tutor  and  agreeing  to  give  him 
all  the  time  he  needed  in  the  evening.  "  And  why 
not  ?  "  Paul  kept  asking  almost  with  a  sob  as  he 
noted  the  glow  that  was  creeping  back  into  Louis's 
eye,  the  glow  of  a  new  interest  in  study.  "  Why 
not?  What  shall  it  profit  the  reformer  if  he  re- 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  163 

forms  the  whole  state  and  loses  his  own  children? 
I  don't  believe  that  even  high-flown  Patriotism  re- 
quires such  a  sacrifice  as  that." 

When  Louis  went  up  to  bed  tears  were  on  his 
cheeks  and  a  choking  in  his  breast.  His  father  had 
simply  said,  "  My  boy,  I  want  you  to  be  a  man. 
Your  mother  and  I  have  prayed  for  you  all  these 
years.  We  believe  you  will  not  disappoint  us. 
Don't  forget  God,  Louis.  You  need  to  pray  to  over- 
come this  great  temptation  of  impure  thinking. 
The  gates  of  Hell  are  close  by  that  sort  of  life.  Not 
even  your  father  and  mother  can  spare  you  from 
ruin  that  way.  You  have  got  to  fight  it  out  your- 
self. God  helping  you." 

Paul  looked  up  at  the  clock  and  saw  it  was  after 
midnight,  but  on  a  venture  he  called  up  the  commit- 
tee room  at  the  State  House.  A  night  janitor  an- 
swered and  informed  him  that  the  committee  had 
been  gone  for  over  an  hour. 

He  went  upstairs  and  found  Esther  ,in  her  sewing 
room,  her  face  pale  and  troubled,  traces  of  tears  on 
her  cheeks  and  such  a  look  of  real  fear  on  her  face 
that  Paul  exclaimed,  "  Esther!  What  is  it?  " 

She  turned  to  her  table  and  picked  up  a  package 
of  postcards  and  with  a  shudder  of  loathing  held 
them  out  to  Paul. 

He  took  them  and  saw  at  a  second's  glance  that 
they  were  the  vulgar,  coarse,  suggestive  and  even 
indecent  photographic  postcards  which  this  great 
civilised,  supposedly  Christian,  government  even  yet 
allows  to  pass  through  the  post  office  and  be  dis- 


164  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

played  and  sold  at  every  news  stand  and  book  store 
in  the  country. 

"  They  dropped  out  of  Louis's  coat  when  I  began 
to  mend  it  this  evening.  And  there  was  worse.  He 
or  some  other  boy  had  written  this  vile  thing." 
Esther  handed  it  to  Paul  what  she  had  found.  Paul 
read  it  and  his  face  grew  white  and  stern.  Esther 
sat  down  and  put  her  head  on  her  arms  and  almost 
shrieked. 

"  Oh,  I  can't  bear  it !  Louis !  Louis !  How  could 
you!  Oh,  how  can  his  soul  ever  be  clean  again! 
Oh,  boy,  your  mother's  heart  is  broken!  After  all 
my  prayers  for  you !  After  all  the  days  and  nights 
of  consecration!  Oh,  my  son,  my  son!  Would 
God  I  had  died  before  I  knew  or  saw  this !  Oh,  my 
Master,  the  cup  is  too  bitter !  I  can't  drink  it !  " 

Never  in  all  his  knowledge  of  Esther  had  Paul  ever 
seen  her  like  this.  His  own  heart  almost  stopped  at 
the  sight.  For  years  she  had  been  so  uniformly 
calm  and  strong  even  when  her  children  had  disap- 
pointed her.  She  had  with  high-spirited  mother- 
hood faced  their  sins  and  wrong-doing  with  a  peace- 
ful faith  that  they  would  do  right  in  the  end.  But 
this  discovery  seemed  to  smite  her  soul  down  into  a 
hopeless  darkness,  where  there  was  no  redemption. 
And  as  Paul  looked  at  her  there  was  in  his  soul  more 
anguish  for  her  than  fear  for  Louis  over  what  she 
had  discovered.  In  a  sense  he  was  prepared  for  this, 
somewhat,  because  of  the  glimpses  he  had  been  get- 
ting that  very  evening  of  Louis's  nature  and  its 
temptations. 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  165 

He  kneeled  by  his  wife  and  put  his  arm  about  her. 

"  This  is  too  great  for  you  to  bear  alone.  Be- 
sides, it  may  not  be  as  hopeless  or  as  terrible  as  you 
think.  Let  me  see  Louis.  I  have  just  been  having 
an  evening  with  him.  If  he  hasn't  gone  to  bed  I  be- 
lieve now  is  the  time  for  me  to  see  him." 

Esther  had  grown  quiet.  She  seemed  to  be  pray- 
ing. Paul  got  up  and  went  out  of  the  room  along 
the  hallway  to  Louis's  room  and  knocked.  At 
Louis's  answer  he  went  in  and  found  him  at  work 
on  the  writing  desk. 

Without  any  preliminary  Paul  held  out  the  cards 
to  Louis  and  said,  "  Louis,  are  these  yours?  " 

Louis  face  blanched  on  the  instant.  His  hand 
trembled  so  he  could  not  hold  the  cards  still.  He 
tried  to  answer  but  his  tongue  seemed  paralysed. 
His  father  repeated  the  question  more  sternly. 
Louis  broke  down  completely,  flung  himself  on  the 
bed  in  a  spasm  of  fear  and  shame. 

His  father  eyed  him  with  conflicting  feelings. 
Again  he  was  strongly  reminded  of  Louis  Darcy  and 
his  many  experiences  with  him.  Louis  still  refused 
to  answer,  and  Paul  said: 

"  Look  up  here,  Louis.  Look  up  and  answer  me. 
Did  you  write  that?  " 

His  father  thrust  the  paper  his  mother  had  found 
close  up  to  the  boy.  Louis  cried  out.  "  No,  no, 
father.  That  is  not  mine.  One  of  the  boys " 

Paul  felt  relieved  as  far  as  that  went,  for  Louis 
had  never  lied  to  him. 

"  But  these  cards.     Are  these  yours  ?  " 


166  THE    HIGH   CALLING 

"  Yes." 

**  How  long  have  you  had  them?  " 

"  I  got  them  yesterday." 

"  Give  them  to  me."  Louis  handed  them  over  and 
Paul  tore  them  across  again  and  again  and  flung 
the  pieces  into  the  waste  paper  basket.  Louis  had 
never  seen  his  father  angry  like  that  before.  He 
shrank  and  cowered  back  while  his  father  said: 

"  Louis,  I  would  almost  rather  see  you  in  your 
coffin  than  with  those  vile  things  in  your  hands  and 
their  foul  imaginings  in  your  heart.  Do  you  realise 
what  this  will  lead  to?  Your  manhood  will  be 
blasted!  your  soul  blackened!  your  body  tortured! 
all  the  angel  in  you  turned  into  animal " 

Paul  nearly  broke  down  himself.  He  shuddered 
and  for  one  instant  Louis  really  caught  a  glimpse 
into  the  horror  that  sin  causes. 

But  Paul  Douglas  was  not  a  cowardly  father  nor 
one  who  is  content  to  leave  it  to  boys  to  learn  unaided 
bitter  lessons  from  evil.  He  sat  down  by  Louis  and 
gave  him  the  plainest  talk  on  the  subject  of  personal 
purity  the  boy  had  ever  had.  And  the  effect  on  him 
in  all  his  after  life  was  even  more  than  either  Paul 
or  Esther  had  dared  to  hope.  Paul  never  did  a 
better  hour's  work.  When  he  was  through,  Louis 
was  completely  broken.  In  the  moment  of  his  cry 
to  his  father  for  help,  Paul  kneeled  by  him,  put  his 
arm  around  him  and  prayed  for  him  such  a  prayer 
of  appeal  and  hope  and  good  cheer  that  Louis 
Douglas  will  never  forget.  The  whole  thing  was  the 
beginning  of  a  new  manhood  for  the  boy.  And  when 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  167 

the  next  day  he  plucked  up  courage  to  confess  to  his 
mother,  one  of  the  hardest  things  he  ever  did  in  all 
his  life,  the  entire  unfolding  of  his  mother's  love,  her 
passionate  appeal  to  his  better  nature,  her  cry  to  him 
to  seek  God's  help  in  overcoming  all,  overwhelmed 
him.  Again  the  boy  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  mighti- 
ness of  father  and  mother  affection  and  young  as  he 
was  he  came  from  that  soul  yearning  of  Esther  with 
a  manly  determination  in  his  boyish  heart  not  to  dis- 
appoint either  father  or  mother  in  the  struggle  fie 
would  make  to  be  true  to  the  high  calling.  For  as 
the  time  slipped  away  many  and  many  a  time  he  was 
reminded  of  the  black  pit  on  the  edge  of  which  he 
had  almost  slipped,  to  fall  into  its  slimy  and  murky 
abyss,  and  perhaps  never  again  come  up  into  the  pure 
sweet  air  of  God  under  his  blue  sky  and  its  silver 
stars.  0  Louis,  you  will  never  be  able  to  measure 
the  rescue  your  father  and  mother  made  for  you  at 
that  crisis  when  your  soul  was  wandering  over  the 
treeless  moor  of  passion. 


CHAPTER   X 

FELIX  BAUER  sat  at  his  bench  in  the  electrical 
machine  shop  at  Burrton  just  about  to  open 
a  letter  which  had  been  left  there  late  in  the  after- 
noon. The  shop  men  sometimes  brought  one  an- 
other's mail  up  from  the  village  and  Bauer,  who 
often  worked  at  his  task  without  going  out  to  tea, 
was  glad  to  get  his  occasional  letters  before  he 
finished  his  bench  work  late  into  the  night. 

Bauer's  mail  was  not  very  frequent  nor  very 
heavy.  After  that  vacation  at  the  Douglas  home, 
he  had  come  back  to  Burrton  and  plunged  into  the 
work  in  a  vain  endeavour  to  forget  Helen  Douglas. 
He  did  not  forget  her  in  the  least  and  did  not  try 
to  pretend  that  he  ever  could.  He  had  never  ven- 
tured to  ask  if  he  might  write  to  her,  but  Mrs.  Doug- 
las had  dropped  a  friendly  note  now  and  then  for 
which  he  was  grateful  and  Paul  had  sent  him  a  copy 
of  Heine,  which  Bauer  had  admired  on  the  library 
shelves  at  Milton. 

The  only  additional  letters  he  received  were  those 
which  belonged  to  his  correspondence  with  the  people 
in  Washington  who  were  interested  in  his  electrical 
patent.  The  circular  glass  incubator  was  finally 
completed,  and  Bauer  had  experimented  on  it  to  such 
satisfaction  that  it  was  a  common  joke  with  the  boys 

168 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  169 

that  Bauer's  electrical  chickens  were  so  thick  they 
ate  up  all  the  currents  in  the  shop. 

Bauer  could  afford  to  take  all  the  criticism,  even 
the  caustic  remarks  of  Anderson  the  foreman,  be- 
cause it  began  to  look  now  very  much  as  if  the  stub- 
born, dogged,  plodding  German  were  on  the  road 
to  financial  success.  He  had  been  through  the  regu- 
lar struggles  necessary  to  make  his  model  and  get 
his  patent.  But  he  had  finally  succeeded  in  all  the 
preliminary  stages,  his  model  was  in  the  patent  office, 
and  he  had  even  begun  to  receive  letters  from  two 
or  three  manufacturing  firms  about  putting  the  in- 
cubator on  the  market. 

He  was  totally  inexperienced  in  this  business  and 
needed  much  counsel  from  older  heads.  Anderson 
the  foreman  finally  saw  that  Bauer  had  really  in- 
vented a  very  valuable  article  and  he  came  to  his  as- 
sistance in  the  final  correspondence  over  the  patent, 
but  Bauer  had  some  reluctance  about  sharing  with 
him  the  correspondence  over  the  actual  manufac- 
ture and  sale  of  the  incubators,  because  of  Ander- 
son's unfortunate  habit  of  antagonising  the  shop 
men  in  various  matters.  He  had  never  been  able  to 
overcome  a  general  distrust  on  the  part  of  the 
students,  and  Bauer  shared  that  distrust  so  keenly 
that  he  did  not  feel  willing  to  risk  any  great  amount 
of  confidence  in  him. 

Since  his  return  from  Milton,  Bauer  had  brooded 
over  money  matters.  A  small  inheritance  from  his 
grandfather's  estate  in  Lausbrachen  had  helped  him 
through  school,  and  his  living  wants  were  so  few  that 


170  THE   HIGH   CALLING 

he  had  not  suffered  any  from  privations  which  most 
of  the  rich  men's  sons  at  Burrton  would  have  con- 
sidered absolutely  impossible. 

But  a  new  and  unknown  ambition  had  invaded 
Bauer's  hitherto  placid  and  somewhat  passive  soul 
since  Helen  Douglas  had  come  into  his  circle  of  in- 
terest. What  was  it  the  girl  had  said  during  that 
talk  in  the  library  that  day  when  she  had  made  a 
vow  not  to  speak  first  and  had  broken  it?  Bauer 
remembered  every  phase  of  that  incident;  the  girl's 
real  sparkle  of  interest  in  his  invention;  her  eager 
questions;  her  coming  up  to  the  library  table  and 
bending  over  Bauer's  plan;  her  head  so  close  to  his 
that  a  stray  curl  of  her  hair  had  almost  touched  his 
cheek;  her  startled  drawing  back  at  Bauer's  solemn 
remark  about  the  eggs  having  to  be  good  before  they 
could  hatch;  her  frank  but  entirely  innocent  ques- 
tioning of  him  about  his  home  life,  and  how  she  un- 
knowingly hurt  him;  her  swift  realisation  of  some- 
thing wrong  and  her  tactful  change  of  conversation ; 
and  then  her  remark  about  the  power  of  money  when 
she  had  asked  Bauer  about  the  possibility  of  his  be- 
coming rich.  The  girl's  enthusiasm,  her  perfect 
physical  animal  health,  her  smile,  her  unquestioned 
interest  in  his  work,  her  ingenuous  and  pure  joy  in 
life, — all  affected  poor  Bauer  so  deeply  that  he  felt 
as  if  he  were  walking  through  an  apple  orchard  in 
full  bloom,  his  feet  pressing  through  fragrant  red 
clover,  and  the  apple  blossom  petals  floating  down 
gently,  caressing  his  face  and  hands,  the  sky  a  robin 
egg  blue  and  the  air  elixir  of  heaven — and  then,  he 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  171 

was  suddenly  recalled  to  the  plain,  dusty,  weed- 
bordered  road  he  was  actually  travelling,  he,  Felix 
Bauer,  German,  poor,  homely,  with  a  dishonoured 
family  history,  with  no  prospects  worth  considering 
and  no  future  worth  dreaming  over.  And  the  road 
became  very  dusty,  and  the  weeds  very  coarse,  and 
the  sky  very  grey  and  the  air  very  heavy  for  Bauer, 
as  Helen  went  out  of  the  library  and  left  him 
there  staring  intently  at  the  place  where  she  had 
been  and  recalling  what  she  had  said  about 
money. 

After  all,  money  was  the  great  power  of  the  world. 
It  could  buy  anything,  even  a  wife,  even  in  these 
modern  times.  But  could  it  buy  love?  Had  it  ever 
bought  so  divine  a  thing  as  that  since  the  founda- 
tion of  the  world? 

Bauer's  question  did  not  go  much  farther.  Some- 
how he  shrank  from  trying  to  answer  it.  But  he 
brooded  over  the  utter  hopelessness  of  his  thought 
of  Helen  as  he  stood,  penniless  and  obscure,  and  dis- 
honoured, as  he  believed,  through  the  sin  of  his  par- 
ents. And  as  his  patent  grew  under  his  hands  and 
the  possibility  of  his  really  making  money  from  it 
became  more  possible,  he  found  himself  growing  pos- 
sessed with  the  "  auri  fames  "  and  nourishing  it  as  if 
it  were  the  one  indispensable  factor  in  his  final  posses- 
sion of  the  one  being  in  the  whole  world  worth  liv- 
ing for.  He  believed  he  could  never  win  such  a  life 
without  money.  There  might  be  some  hope  for  him 
or  any  man  with  it. 

The  letter  which  he  was  about  to  open  bore  the 


172  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

Washington  postmark  and  he  took  for  granted  it 
was  from  someone  interested  in  the  purchase  of  his 
patent  rights.  He  opened  it  in  his  usual  slow  de- 
liberate manner,  but  the  moment  he  began  to  read 
his  whole  manner  changed.  It  was  as  if  one  had 
opened  a  cage  door  to  take  a  pet  bird  in  his  hand 
suddenly  to  find  his  fingers  in  contact  with  a 
snake. 

He  rose  from  his  bench  so  abruptly  that  his  chair 
fell  over,  and  he  threw  the  letter  down,  eyeing  it  as 
if  it  were  alive  and  dangerous  to  the  touch.  Then 
after  a  few  seconds  he  picked  up  the  letter  and  yield- 
ing to  a  very  unusual  passion  tore  the  paper  clear 
across,  and  threw  the  two  pieces  down  on  the 
bench.  Then  he  seemed  to  be  aware  of  yielding  to 
an  unusual  outburst  and  picking  up  his  chair  he  sat 
down. 

There  were  only  a  few  students  in  the  shop. 
Walter  had  gone  out  an  hour  before.  It  was  al- 
most seven  o'clock  and  the  foreman  was  just  going 
out  of  his  little  office  room  at  the  other  end  of  Bauer's 
section  of  benches. 

Bauer  sat  there  until  the  foreman  had  gone  out 
and  then  he  picked  up  the  two  pieces  of  the  letter 
and  with  a  flush  of  colour  on  his  face  as  unusual  as 
his  recent  outburst  of  feeling,  he  slowly  read.  The 
handwriting  was  very  peculiar  even  for  German 
script  and  the  tearing  of  the  letter  in  two  made  its 
intelligent  perusal  doubly  difficult. 

When  he  reached  the  end  he  hesitated  and  at  last 
put  the  two  pieces  of  the  letter  into  its  envelope  and 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  173 

the  envelope  in  his  pocket  and  then  he  sat  staring  at 
the  stuff  on  his  bench  with  a  hard  look  in  which  scorn 
and  shame  and  perplexity  were  mingled.  He  sat 
there  until  he  was  all  alone.  Then  he  got  up  and 
tried  to  go  on  with  his  work.  He  was  on  the  track 
of  another  invention, — a  spring  coil  to  prevent  the 
jar  to  a  tungsten  lamp.  But  after  picking  up  a 
tool  and  making  one  or  two  efforts  to  continue  his 
task,  he  threw  his  material  down  on  the  bench  and 
after  a  moment  of  indecision  closed  up  the  locker, 
put  on  his  coat  and  went  out. 

He  and  Walter  had  rooms  opposite  each  other  in 
the  same  hall.  As  he  went  up  to  the  landing  he 
stopped  at  Walter's  door  and  finding  it  open,  went 
in.  Walter  was  writing  to  his  father.  Bauer  waited 
until  he  was  through  and  then  in  his  usual  direct 
simple  manner  said: 

"  Walter,  I  want  your  advice.  I'm  in  a  hard 
place  and  I  don't  know  just  what  I  ought 
to  do." 

"  All  right.  Fire  away,"  said  Walter  frankly. 
The  friendship  of  the  two  was  now  on  a  perfect  basis 
and  Bauer  had  lost  all  reserve  although  he  had  never 
up  to  this  time  taken  Walter  into  complete  con- 
fidence in  his  family  matters,  partly  owing  to  an 
honest  feeling  of  independence  and  a  courageous  re- 
luctance to  burden  Walter  with  it. 

"  I  want  to  read  you  a  letter  from  my  father," 
said  Bauer,  eyeing  Walter  wistfully. 

Walter  nodded,  and  Bauer  took  out  the  letter  and 
read  in  his  slow  almost  stammering  fashion. 


174  THE   HIGH   CALLING 

"  Washington,  D.  C., 
"  October  5,  1909. 

"  Son  Felix. 

"  Undoubtedly  this  letter  will  cause  you  surprise. 
It  is  only  after  much  painful  contemplation  of  all 
the  facts  that  I  venture  to  send  you  this  communica- 
tion. It  is  not  an  easy  matter  for  myself  after  the 
experiences  through  which  I  have  passed  to  approach 
you  with  a  proposition  which  may  seem  altogether 
impossible  to  you.  Before  you  judge  me,  hear  me. 
Whatever  may  have  been  the  mistakes  I  have  made 
you  have  never  been  involved  in  them  in  any  way, 
and  I  am  writing  you  now  to  assure  you  of  my  real 
affection  for  you  and  to  hasten  to  dispel  any  ill  will 
you  may  have  for  me  on  account  of  the  deep  shadow 
which  has  fallen  on  my  life. 

"  I  am  living  here  in  Washington  and  have  opened 
a  law  office  on  H  street.  A  few  days  ago  I  had  oc- 
casion to  go  to  the  patent  office  and  there  I  saw  your 
model  of  the  electric  incubator.  There  were  two 
men  standing  there  looking  at  the  model  and  I  over- 
heard one  of  them  saying,  '  That  thing  is  good  for  a 
fortune  to  someone.'  I  learned  by  inquiry  that  the 
speaker  was  Halstead  of  the  manufacturing  firm  of 
Halstead,  Burns  &  Co.  He  does  not  know  me,  and 
I  am  sure  he  did  not  see  me  or  notice  me  while  he 
was  in  the  patent  office. 

"  Now  what  I  am  writing  you  for  is  simply  this. 
If  you  will  put  the  business  of  this  patent  into  my 
hands,  I  am  confident  I  can  manage  it  for  you  to 
your  satisfaction.  I  am  confident  you  have  made 


THE    HIGH   CALLING  175 

a  very  valuable  invention  and  it  ought  to  bring  you 
a  good  sum  of  money.  I  am  willing  to  do  all  the 
work  of  negotiating  between  you  and  the  parties  in- 
terested and  charge  you  only  a  fair  price  for  my 
services.  As  you  know,  I  have  had  some  experience  in 
business  affairs  and  I  am  not  without  ability.  There 
will  be  two  offers  made  you  no  doubt,  one  to  buy  your 
patent  outright,  and  the  other  to  contract  for  a 
share  of  the  manufactured  sales.  In  the  first  case  a 
lump  sum  would  be  offered.  In  the  other  you  would 
be  obliged  to  wait  a  long  time  for  any  returns.  I 
would  be  inclined  to  favour  the  sale  of  the  patent 
rights  and  hold  to  a  stiff  price.  But  that  is  a  mat- 
ter for  deliberation.  You  may  not  agree  with  me. 
However,  very  much  would  depend  on  the  amount  the 
patent  right  could  bring.  If  this  man  Halstead,  who 
is  one  of  the  largest  manufacturers  in  the  east,  is 
right  in  his  judgment  it  is  possible  the  sum  he  will 
offer  you  would  decide  the  matter  for  you  and  give 
you  a  sum  of  ready  money  which  I  have  no  doubt 
you  could  well  use  in  your  education. 

"  I  do  not  offer  any  apologies  for  this  missive  as 
I  do  not  consider  that  it  calls  for  any.  My  offer 
is  purely  a  business  one  and  I  make  it  partly  on  my 
own  account  as  well  as  yours.  If  the  patent  turns 
out  a  success  we  would  both  benefit  by  it.  I  am  con- 
fident, as  I  say,  that  I  can  serve  your  interests  bet- 
ter than  any  mere  stranger.  I  am  here  on  the 
ground,  I  am  familiar  with  the  patent  laws  and  I 
believe  I  can  make  good  terms  with  a  man  like  Hal- 
stead.  If  you  decide  to  accept  my  offer,  write  me 


176  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

at  once,  giving  me  authority  to  act  for  you.  The 
sooner  the  better,  for  I  believe  Halstead  is  going  to 
make  you  an  offer  if  he  has  not  already  done  so.  But 
he  does  not  know  that  anyone  knows  what  he  really 
thinks  of  the  value  of  your  work  and  he  will  do  what 
they  all  do,  try  to  get  your  patent  for  the  lowest 
possible  figure. 

"  My  address  is  427  H  Street  East. 

"  ADOLPH  BAUER." 

When  Felix  had  finished  reading,  there  was  a 
moment  of  silence.  Then  Walter  said,  to  give 
Bauer  time  to  let  him  into  his  confidence  if  he 
chose : 

"  Has  this  man  Halstead  corresponded  with  you 
yet?  " 

"  No,  I  have  had  no  letters  from  him." 
"You  probably  will  hear  from  him  soon,  then?" 
"  Why,  yes,  if  what  he  says  is  true?  " 
Bauer  all  through  this  talk  with  Walter  never  men- 
tioned his  father's  name  directly  but  spoke  of  him 
using  the  personal  pronoun. 

"  What  do  you  suppose  the  patent  is  worth?  " 
"  I    have    no    imagination    about    it.     But    say, 
Walter,  what  do  you  think  I  ought  to  do  about  this 
letter?  " 

"  I  don't  know.     You  have  never  told  me " 

Walter  began  slowly. 

**  I  know,  of  course  you  can't  advise  me  unless  I 
tell  you  more.  He — well,  he  deserted  mother.  She 
was  involved  in  some  similar  disgrace.  From  all  I 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  177 

could  learn  while  in  Washington  that  time  I  went, 
he  turned  over  all  his  property  to  her.  That  was 
the  only  redeeming  thing  abut  the  wretched  busi- 
ness. But  at  any  rate  he  has  been  obliged  to  go 
back  to  his  old  law  business.  He  is  very  capable. 
Brilliant.  My  mother — I  can't  talk  of  her." 

Poor  Bauer  put  his  face  in  his  hands.  Walter  was 
silent.  What  could  anyone  say? 

After  a  little,  Walter  said  gently,  "  Why  do  you 
hesitate  about  accepting  your  father's  offer?" 

"  I  don't  wish  to  be  under  any  obligations  to 
him." 

"  But  he  makes  you  a  purely  business  proposi- 
tion. Can't  you  trust  him  to  handle  it?  " 

"  Oh,  I  suppose  so,  I  never  knew  of  his  being  dis- 
honest. And  you  know  the  old  proverb :  '  Wer 
lugt,  der  stiehlt  auch  ' ;  *  show  me  a  liar  and  I'll  show 
you  a  thief.'  His  faults  were  always  of  a  different 
sort.  But  you  can  see  how  I  would  naturally  hesi- 
tate to  correspond  with  him  or  have  any  dealings 
with  him." 

"  I  think  you  are  wrong  about  that,"  said  Walter 
positively.  "  This  is  a  purely  business  affair.  You 
ought  to  treat  it  as  such.  He  can  handle  the  matter 
for  you,  being  on  the  ground,  far  better  than  you 
can  do  it  through  correspondence  at  this  distance." 

"Do  you  think  so?" 

"  I  know  it.  If  I  were  in  your  place  I  wouldn't 
hesitate  a  minute.  You  are  totally  at  the  mercy  of 
the  manufacturers  unless  you  can  make  them  under- 
stand your  ability  to  take  care  of  yourself.  Isn't 


178  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

it  true  that  the  great  majority  of  inventors  die  poor? 
The  manufacturers  make  the  money,  not  the  in- 
ventors." 

"  That's  true.  But  I  don't  want  to  die  poor.  I 
won't  die  poor.  I  have  not  the  ambition  of  a 
Carnegie  or  a  Rockefeller." 

"  You  need  a  good  friend  at  Washington  to  pro- 
tect your  interests.  My!  Won't  it  be  great  if  your 
incubator  should  make  you  rich !  I  don't  know  why 
it  shouldn't.  The  way  the  chickens  hatched  out  of 
it  was  wonderful.  Just  think,  old  man.  Most 
everyone  nowadays  has  electricity  in  his  house. 
Thousands  of  people  could  just  as  well  as  not  be 
raising  chickens  on  the  side.  Ministers,  doctors, 
college  professors,  newspaper  men,  lawyers,  school 
teachers, — no  end.  The  sun  would  never  set  on  your 
incubator  any  more  than  hens  have  to.  I  tell  you, 
old  man,  there's  money  in  your  electric  birds  if  you 
manage  the  business  end  of  this  thing  right.  And  I 
don't  see  why  your  father's  offer  isn't  just — well, 
providential." 

"  I  never  knew  anything  about  him  to  be  *  provi- 
dential,' "  said  Bauer  in  almost  the  only  bitter  tone 
Walter  had  ever  known  him  to  use.  "  But  I  don't 
want  to  take  any  chances  on  this.  Perhaps  he  is 
sent  along  at  this  time  to  help  me  out." 

Walter  looked  curiously  at  his  friend. 

"  You  seem  to  be  awfully  anxious  to  make  money, 
Felix.  Never  knew  you  that  way  before.  What  you 
going  to  do?  Get  married?  And  start  a  chicken 
ranch?" 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  179 

Over  Bauer's  face  a  great  flood  of  colour  swept. 
There  was  one  confidence  he  had  determined  never  to 
make  to  Walter,  and  that  was  his  feelings  towards 
Helen.  He  believed  Walter  had  no  hint  of  it.  And 
as  a  matter  of  fact  that  was  true.  Walter  had  so 
far  had  no  love  experiences  and  Bauer  had  never 
by  so  much  as  a  look  or  a  word  in  Walter's  presence 
betrayed  his  secret. 

"I  don't  expect  to  get  married.  At  least  not 
very  soon,"  Bauer  managed  to  say.  "  But  I  want 
money.  You  can  borrow  of  me,"  he  added  with  one 
of  his  rare  smiles,  "  if  you  need  it  for  your  own 
nuptials." 

"  No  immediate  need,"  said  Walter,  laughing.  "  I 
have  never  seen  the  girl  my  mother  would  like  to 
welcome." 

"  Ah !  Your  mother.  But  she  would  be  kind  to 
the  girl  you  would  choose." 

"  Or  the  one  that  would  choose  me,  you  mean.  I 
don't  know.  Mother  would  be  pretty  particular 
about  the  people  that  got  into  the  Douglas  family. 
Did  I  ever  mention  old  man  Damon  who  came  around 
courting  Helen  last  winter.  He  wears  a  wig  and 
deals  in  rubber  goods.  Old  enough  to  be  Helen's 
father.  I  never  saw  mother  so  upset.  And  as  for 
Helen — why — I  would  as  soon  think  of  her  taking 
you  for  a  suitor  as  Damon.  But  you  never  can  tell 
what  a  girl  will  do.  They  generally  do  the  op- 
posite of  what  you  expect." 

Bauer  managed  to  say — "  That's  fortunate  for 
some  of  us  perhaps.  Else  there  might  be  no  hope 


180  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

for  unfortunate  and  homely  people  if  there  was  any 
fixed  rules  by  which  girls  acted." 

Walter  stared  at  Bauer  as  he  sometimes  had  to 
when  Bauer  opened  his  philosophy  unexpectedly. 

"  I  wonder  what  will  happen  to  you,  old  man,  when 
you  fall  in  love,  really  and  deeply?  " 

"  I  wonder,"  said  Bauer  softly. 

"  It  will  be  interesting  to  watch  you,"  said  Walter 
laughing. 

"  Same  to  you,"  said  Bauer  with  some  spirit. 

"  We  can  watch  each  other,"  Walter  contin- 
ued. 

"  I  have  no  doubt  you  will  bear  watching"  was 
Bauer's  reply,  wrung  from  him  by  the  tense  situa- 
tion. 

Walter  roared,  and  did  not  venture  to  say  any 
more  on  that  subject.  But  he  went  on  to  urge 
Bauer  to  answer  his  father's  letter  at  once  and  give 
him  power  of  attorney  to  act  for  him  and  make  the 
best  possible  terms  for  his  invention.  Bauer  prom- 
ised before  he  left  the  room  to  do  so,  and  on  reach- 
ing his  own  room  he  at  once  set  to  work  on  the  diffi- 
cult business  of  answering  his  father  on  purely  busi- 
ness grounds.  Without  making  any  definite  prom- 
ises or  giving  his  father  any  authority  to  act  for  him, 
with  characteristic  caution  he  asked  several  ques- 
tions about  the  patent  laws,  and  especially  about  the 
possibility  of  undertaking  the  manufacture  of  the 
incubators  on  shares.  He  enclosed  the  letters  he 
already  had  received  from  companies  interested,  none 
of  which  however  had  made  him  any  positive  offer, 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  181 

only  sounding  him  in  general  as  to  his  disposition  to 
sell  the  patent  rights  on  certain  terms  which  had  no 
very  promising  prospects  of  ready  money.  And  it 
was  money  Bauer  wanted, — not  dim  future  pros- 
pects of  the  all-powerful  medium  of  happiness  or  un- 
happiness. 

After  his  letter  had  been  mailed,  he  felt  a  little  un- 
certain about  it  all,  but  he  was  of  a  direct,  straight- 
forward habit  and  once  started  in  a  course  of  action 
he  seldom  changed  it.  Once  committed  to  the  cor- 
respondence with  his  father  he  would  hold  to  it,  keep- 
ing it  all  on  a  cold  business  basis  as  if  his  father  had 
no  other  relation  to  him,  and  letting  the  heartache 
take  care  of  itself.  It  is  astonishing  how  many 
heartaches  do  take  care  of  themselves  in  this  old 
world.  Only,  like  Bauer's,  they  are  apt  to  take 
care  of  themselves  so  poorly  that  the  ache  starves 
the  heart  out  of  house  and  home. 

Two  days  later,  Walter,  who  was  in  his  room 
going  over  some  complicated  formulae  connected 
with  Rausch's  Dynamics,  was  interrupted  by  Bauer 
who  came  running  in  from  his  room  across  the  hall 
waving  a  little  slip  of  paper. 

"  What  do  you  think  of  that,"  he  exclaimed  with 
unusual  excitement. 

Walter  looked  at  the  little  yellow  slip  and  read 
"  One  Thousand  Dollars  "  payable  to  Felix  Bauer 
by  Halstead,  Burns  &  Co.,  of  Washington." 

"  They  offer  me  that  for  my  patent  right,  with 
a  small  percentage  of  profit  on  certain  sales." 

Walter  was  excited  in  his  turn  and  started  to  offer 


182  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

congratulations.  But  Bauer's  next  words  broke  in 
on  him. 

"  I'm  going  to  send  the  check  back.  It's  not 
enough  and  they  know  it." 

"  I  believe  you're  right,"  said  Walter,  after  a  stare 
at  Bauer  in  this  new  light  of  money  hunger.  "  The 
fact  that  they  sent  a  check  shows  their  eagerness  to 
get  into  the  business  and  their  faith  in  its  value. 
What  will  you  hold  them  up  to  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know.  But  I  am  going  to  put  the  mat- 
ter up  to — to  him." 

"  You  mean  your  father  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Bauer  hastily.  "  The  more  I  think 
of  it  the  more  I  believe  he  can  get  more  than  I  can. 
I'll  mail  him  Halstead's  correspondence." 

That  same  afternoon  Bauer  returned  the  check 
to  Halstead,  Burns,  &  Co.  with  a  brief  business  note 
saying  that  he  was  not  prepared  to  sell  out  at  such 
a  small  figure.  He  added  that  he  had  placed  the 
business  connected  with  the  patent  in  the  hands  of 
his  father,  giving  street  number  and  office.  In  the 
same  mail  he  sent  his  father  Halstead's  letter  and 
told  of  his  return  of  the  check,  at  the  same  time  au- 
thorising his  father  to  have  full  power  to  act  for  him 
with  Halstead  or  any  other  firm. 

"  I  do  not  know  j  ust  what  I  ought  to  receive  for 
my  patent."  Bauer  wrote.  "  But  I  am  not  going  to 
act  hastily  nor  sell  at  a  sacrifice.  I  trust  you  to 
make  terms  that  will  at  least  be  some  measure  of  the 
real  value  of  the  article." 

A  week  passed  by  during  which  time  Bauer's  father 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  183 

wrote  acknowledging  Bauer's  letters,  thanking  him 
for  accepting  his  offer,  commending  his  action  in  re- 
turning the  check  to  Halstead,  Burns  &  Co.,  and  as- 
suring Felix  that  the  business  would  receive  prompt 
and  careful  attention. 

A  week  later  as  Walter  and  Bauer  were  in  the 
shop  a  telegraph  messenger  came  in  with  an  envelope 
for  Felix  Bauer. 

Bauer  opened  and  read  and  without  a  word  passed 
the  message  over  to  Walter.  It  read,  "  Halstead 
offers  $5,000  cash  down  and  percentage  on  Amer- 
ican sales.  Shall  I  close  with  offer?  Adolph 
Bauer." 

Walter  could  hardly  speak — he  was  so  excited. 

"  Better  close  with  it.  You  can't  do  better. 
That  father  of  yours  must  be  a " 

Bauer  smiled  faintly.  "  Perhaps  I  can't  expect 
more.  I  believe  I  will  wire  accept." 

"  Better  find  out  what  the  percentage  is,  and  why 
European  sales  are  not  included." 

"  Yes,"  said  Bauer  briefly.  He  was  strangely 
calm  and  not  particularly  overjoyed  by  his  unex- 
pected good  fortune.  Walter  recalled  that  after- 
wards. 

He  answered  the  telegram  with  a  letter,  asking  for 
details  which  his  father  furnished  promptly.  The 
European  sales  were  subject  to  such  expense  and  de- 
lay that  the  manufacturers  explained  the  unusual 
risk  and  made  a  plausible  showing  why  royalty  terms 
were  difficult  to  arrange.  After  two  weeks  corre- 
spondence, Bauer  finally  telegraphed  his  father — 


184  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

"  You  are  authorised  to  close  with  Halstead  on 
their  terms.  Take  your  commission  out  of  the 
$5,000." 

By  the  business  arrangements  made  between  them 
Bauer's  father  was  to  receive  five  per  cent,  on  any 
cash  offer.  Bauer  felt  kindly  towards  him  for  the 
way  the  affair  had  come  out  and  in  a  letter  written 
the  same  day  he  sent  the  telegram  he  authorised  his 
father  to  take  out  ten  per  cent,  commission  in- 
stead of  the  five  agreed  upon  in  their  formal  con- 
tract. 

"  I  don't  want  to  get  too  money  mad,"  he  said  to 
himself  with  a  grim  smile  as  he  posted  the  letter,  and 
with  a  great  feeling  of  weariness  upon  him  went  into 
the  shop. 

Felix  Bauer  was  one  of  the  few  students  at  Burrton 
who  never  subscribed  to  a  daily  paper  and  seldom 
read  one.  He  kept  up  with  the  news  of  the  world 
by  dropping  into  Walter's  room  and  hearing  him 
dribble  out  the  events  of  the  day  from  a  New  York 
daily  which  Walter  took.  The  edition  reached 
Burrton  eight  hours  after  the  date  line. 

Three  days  after  Bauer  had  authorised  his  father 
to  close  the  contract  on  the  patent  for  him  Walter 
opened  up  his  New  York  Daily  for  his  usual  skim 
over  its  contents.  It  was  two  o'clock.  He  had 
heard  Bauer  come  up  the  stairs  and  go  into  his  room 
and  had  not  heard  him  go  out. 

He  glanced  down  over  the  usual  political  and 
sporting  news  and  then  his  eye  caught  a  headline  that 
made  him  start. 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  185 

"LEAVES  ON  THE  KAISER  WILHELM  UNDER  SUS- 
PICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES." 

**  Adolph  Bauer,  ex-attachee  of  the  Consular  ser- 
vice, sailed  yesterday  on  the  Kaiser  Wilhelm  for 
Bremen.  Bauer  will  be  remembered  as  the  brilliant 
but  shady  member  of  the  Washington  coterie  of  un- 
savory reputation  in  connection  with  the  Jaynes- 
Buford  scandal.  Before  sailing,  Bauer  cashed  a 
check  for  $5,000  on  Halstead,  Burns  &  Co.,  pay- 
ment it  is  said  on  a  patent  right  owned  by  himself 
and  son  for  a  new  invention  in  the  incubator  line. 
The  son  is  a  student  at  Burrton  Electrical  School. 
There  is  no  charge  of  crookedness  at  the  bank.  The 
check  had  the  regular  endorsement  of  Halstead. 
But  parties  who  are  interested  in  Bauer's  movements 
socially,  have  taken  steps  to  track  him  to  Europe. 
Interesting  developments  are  promised  by  those  who 
know  Bauer*' s  antecedents  and  especially  his  treat- 
ment of  his  wife  from  whom  he  is  separated  pending 
a  divorce." 

Walter  was  tremendously  downcast  by  this  bit 
of  news. 

"  Poor  Bauer !  Poor  old  man ! "  he  said  over  and 
over.  "  What  an  unmitigated  rascal  that  father  of 
his  must  be  to  steal  that  money.  Bauer  will  never 
get  a  cent.  And  I  advised  him  to  take  up  with  his 
precious  father's  offer!  But  how  could  I  foresee  a 
thing  as  black  as  this.  Oh,  I  don't  know  what  I 
ought  to  do!  How  can  I  tell  him!  I  can't  do  it! 
But  he  will  find  it  out  in  a  day  or  two !  It  can't  be 
kept.  Blame  it !  Why  are  there  such  things  in  the 


186  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

old  world!  And  Bauer  has  been  so  eager  to  get 
money  lately.  Oh,  I  can't  tell  him!  I  just  can't." 

Walter  paced  his  room  in  great  agitation.  He 
dreaded  to  see  Bauer.  How  could  he  break  this  to 
him?  He  dreaded  to  see  his  friend  come  out  of  the 
room.  And  he  waited.  But  after  an  hour,  Bauer 
had  made  no  move  and  Walter,  recalling  his  strength 
of  character  and  mindful  that  the  news  would  have 
to  come  to  him  some  time,  finally  shook  himself  to- 
gether, went  out,  crossed  the  hall  and  knocked  on 
Bauer's  door. 

The  knock  was  a  faint  one  and  there  was  no  re- 
ply. He  knocked  again  a  little  louder,  and  getting 
no  answer,  he  did  what  he  often  did,  opened  and  went 
in. 

Bauer  was  standing  over  by  his  washbowl,  lean- 
ing over  and  as  he  raised  his  head  and  turned  around, 
Walter  was  startled  at  the  look  that  greeted  him. 

"  What !  "  He  took  a  stride  over  to  his  friend  and 
put  one  hand  on  his  shoulder.  In  the  other  hand  he 
held  the  New  York  paper. 

Bauer  smiled  back  at  him. 

"  I  was  going  to  tell  you.  It's  too  much  bother 
to  hide  it.  But  this  hemorrhage  is  worse  than  the 
others.  I've  been  to  see  the  doctor  and  he  says  I'll 
come  out  all  right  if  I  can  get  into  the  painted  desert 
and  stay  there  a  year  or  two." 

Walter  stared  at  Bauer  without  a  word. 

The  paper  slipped  out  of  his  fingers,  and  he  was 
hardly  conscious  of  the  fact  that  Bauer  had  stepped 
on  it  as  he  had  walked  over  to  his  couch  to  lie  down 
there. 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  187 

"  You  see,"  he  said,  lying  on  his  back,  looking  up 
at  Walter  and  speaking  in  his  usual  slow  fashion, 
"  I've  only  had  the  flow  three  times.  First  time  I 
never  minded  it.  Next  one  took  me  three  weeks  ago 
while  you  were  gone  to  the  Harrisburg  Exhibition. 
The  doctor  says  I  will  come  out  all  right  if  I  go  out 
there.  My  money  will  come  in  a  day  or  two  and  I'll 
start  for  Canon  Diablo.  I  ought  to  have  a  pretty 
good  time  on  $4,500.  Living  is  cheap  in  the  painted 
desert.  And  any  way,  '  Wir  mussen  alle  einmal 
sterben  ?  '  '  We  must  all  die  sometime,'  you  know." 

Walter's  eyes  travelled  from  Bauer's  face  to  the 
newspaper  on  the  floor  and  back  again.  And  Bauer 
mistaking  his  look  said,  "  Don't  take  it  so  hard.  It 
might  be  worse.  Money  salves  the  wound  you  know. 
Perhaps  you  can  go  out  with  me  for  a  few  weeks. 
Can  you?  Of  course  I'll  foot  all  the  bills  if  you'll 
go."  And  he  smiled  at  Walter  as  he  spoke. 


WALTER  was  trembling  with  sympathy  and 
the  sudden  shock  from  the  unexpected  revela- 
tion of  Bauer's  physical  condition.  He  was  so  over- 
whelmed with  this  that  the  loss  of  the  money  seemed 
comparatively  trivial. 

"  Why  did  you  not  tell  me  the  condition  you  were 
in?  I  ought  to  have  known  about  it.  It  does  not 
seem  possible." 

"  It's  not  as  serious  as  it  seems.  You  remember 
Gardner,  class  of  1909?  He's  out  in  New  Mexico 
with  a  U.  S.  surveying  party  and  he's  all  right.  A 
year  or  two  out  there  will  put  me  right." 

Walter  looked  at  him  doubtfully. 

"  What  a  chump  I  must  have  been  all  this  winter 
not  to  see.  I  wouldn't  have  believed  it  if  I  read  it 
in  a  book." 

Bauer  smiled  again. 

"  You  couldn't  do  anything  if  you  had  known. 
Nobody  could.  The  change  of  climate  will  fix  me 
all  right.  Lucky  that  money  is  coming  in  just  now. 
Lots  of  fellows  don't  have  my  good  luck." 

"Good  luck?" 

"  Yes.  I  might  be  sick  here  without  a  cent,  and 
be  dependent  like  Franklin  out  at  the  day  camp.  I 
felt  awfully  sorry  for  him  at  the  time,  didn't 


you?" 


188 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  189 

"  Yes,  tell  me !  but  no !  it  hurts  you  to  talk?  " 

Bauer  nodded.  "  I  don't  have  any  pain  to-day. 
Just  weakness.  It's  only  one  lung,  the  doc  says. 
It  might  be  my  knee  joints  or  my  mucous  or  a  dozen 
other  places  worse  than  lungs.  If  you're  going  to 
have  tuberculosis  have  it  when  it  will  raise  the  most 
sympathy.  If  I  only  had  a  heart-rending  cough  to 
go  with  the  hemorrhages  I  could  get  some  church  or 
tuberculosis  society  to  send  me  out  to  Arizona  free 
of  charge." 

Walter  was  so  upset  by  the  whole  thing  and  so  dis- 
turbed by  the  inevitable  revelation  that  was  bound 
to  come  that  he  sat  miserably  silent,  while  Bauer 
rambled  on  in  a  disconnected  manner  to  all  outward 
appearances  quite  unterrified  by  his  trouble,  or  at 
any  rate  making  a  brave  and  successful  attempt  at 
deceiving  his  friend.  But  at  last  he  unexpectedly 
gave  Walter  an  opportunity  to  lead  up  to  the  article 
in  the  paper. 

"  Seems  a  little  queer  I  don't  hear  from  him.  I 
understood  Halstead  and  Burns  were  going  to  pay 
at  once.  Would  you  mind  going  down  after  the 
three  o'clock  mail?  I  feel  a  little  uneasy  about  it. 
Never  had  so  much  money  before.  Probably  never 
will  again." 

"  Did  you  have  any  reason  to  distrust  your 
father?  "  asked  Walter. 

"  No,  I  told  you  his  faults  were  of  another  sort." 

"  What  would  you  do  if  he  should  try  to  cheat  you 
out  of  the  money?  " 

"  How  could  he  do  that?  " 


190  THE    HIGH   CALLING 

"  Didn't  you  give  him  power  of  attorney  to  act 
for  you  ?  " 

"  Yes." 

"  Well,  what  would  hinder  his  having  the  check 
from  Halstead  drawn  in  his  name  instead  of  yours?  " 

"  Nothing,  only " 

"Only  what?" 

"  Why,  just  sheer  humanity." 

Bauer  was  sitting  up  on  the  couch,  his  hands 
doubled  up  and  his  eyes  fixed  on  Walter. 

"What  is  it?"  he  said  at  last  quietly  enough. 
"  Are  you  keeping  something  from  me  ?  I  would 
rather  have  it  from  you  than  from  anyone  else." 

"  Poor  old  man !  "  Walter  could  not  hold  back  a 
groan  as  his  eye  travelled  to  the  paper  on  the  floor. 

Bauer  saw  his  glance.  "  What  is  it?  Read  it 
for  me." 

Walter  put  his  hands  over  his  face  and  muttered. 

"  Oh,  I  can't,  Felix,  it's  too  cruel." 

"  Nothing's  too  cruel  if  you're  used  to  it."  He 
started  to  get  up  from  the  couch,  but  Walter  pre- 
vented him. 

"  Lie  down  there.  I'll  read  it  to  you  if  I  must, 
simply  because  someone  will  have  to  do  it  sometime. 
But  I  would  rather  be  hanged  than  do  it." 

He  hardly  ventured  to  look  at  Bauer  when  he  had 
finished  the  newspaper  account.  When  he  did  look 
at  him,  he  saw  him  sitting  up  on  the  couch,  his  hands 
clasped  over  his  knees,  a  slight  increase  of  colour  on 
his  face  but  no  mark  of  any  unusual  anger  or  feel- 
ing. 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  191 

"  How  could  he  do  it !  How  could  he !  "  Bauer 
whispered  to  himself,  looking  off  into  the  distance  as 
if  Walter  were  not  present.  His  whole  attitude 
affected  Walter  more  deeply  than  if  he  had  given 
way  to  a  violent  passion. 

"  It's  an  outrage !  There  ought  to  be  some  way 
to  get  the  money.  You  could  have  him  arrested 
when  he " 

"Arrest  my  father?  On  the  charge  of  being  a 
thief?  Would  you  do  that  to  your " 

Walter  choked.  "  Arrest  my  father?  I  should 
think  not.  But " 

"  He  may  be  all  you  think,  but  I  will  never  lift  a 
finger  against  him.  Let  God  punish  him,  as  he  has 
already." 

"  And  meanwhile,  if  Halstead  &  Co.  are  informed 
how  matters  are,  they  might " 

"  It  isn't  likely.  They  have  paid  the  money  once. 
Certainly  they  won't  do  it  again.  I  never  heard  of 
any  such  philanthropists  doing  business  in  Wash- 
ington." 

"  But  how  will  you  be  able  to  go  out  to  Arizona  ?  " 
Walter  blurted  before  he  thought,  and  then  wanted 
to  bite  his  tongue  off  as  Bauer  turned  his  face  to- 
wards him,  a  faint  smile  lighting  it. 

"  I  won't  go.  '  Wir  mussen  alle  einmal  ster- 
ben?'" 

"  But  you'll  have  to  go.  We'll  have  to  find  a 
way." 

"  Where  there's  a  will  there's  a  way?  Also  even 
more  necessary,  the  money.  Now  I've  will  enough. 


192  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

But  it  won't  pay  for  a  ticket  nor  buy  the  necessary 
canned  goods  to  go  with  the  sand  of  the  desert  when 
I  get  there.  I'll  set  up  my  incubators  here  at  Burr- 
ton  and  raise  chickens  enough  to  bury  me  decently. 
*  Wir  mussen  alle  einmal  sterben.' ' 

"  Yes,  but  we  don't  have  to  die  before  our  time. 
There  must  be  some  way  out." 

"I  don't  know  of  any."  said  Bauer  gravely  but 
not  with  any  bitterness.  "  But  don't  let  it  worry 
you.  I  don't  want  to  have  you  worried  with  it." 

Nevertheless  Walter  did  worry  over  it  tremen- 
dously. He  had  never  known  anything  in  all  his  ex- 
perience that  affected  him  so  profoundly.  And  in 
his  next  letter  home,  without  hinting  to  Bauer  of  his 
intention,  he  sounded  his  father  as  to  ways  and  means 
for  helping  Bauer  at  this  crisis  in  his  life. 

"  Isn't  there  some  one  in  Milton  who  would  be  in- 
terested enough  in  Bauer  to  help  send  him  out  to 
Arizona?  The  doctor  says  it's  his  only  chance. 
And  he's  pretty  hard  hit.  Think  of  losing  $4,500 
at  one  fell  swoop,  and  by  his  own  father  too.  And 
I  advised  the  business  relation  between  them.  Of 
course  we  had  no  idea  that  the  matter  would  turn 
out  as  it  has  but  that  doesn't  change  the  fact.  As 
near  as  I  can  figure,  it  will  cost  at  least  three  hun- 
dred dollars  to  get  Bauer  out  to  Arizona,  pay  for 
his  board  and  room  and  keep  him  there  a  year.  He 
isn't  a  member  of  any  church  and  Dr.  Howard  of 
the  Congregational  Church  here  in  Burrton  said  a 
few  Sundays  ago  that  his  people  must  make  a  special 
effort  to  raise  the  money  to  care  for  several  needed 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  193 

cases  of  their  own,  so  I  don't  feel  like  going  to  him 
with  Bauer's  story  right  now.  And  besides,  I  don't 
believe  Bauer  would  take  church  help.  He's  awfully 
proud  and  while  he  doesn't  say  much  about  his 
trouble  and  pretends  to  take  it  easy,  I  can  see  he 
is  pretty  hard  hit.  And  who  wouldn't  be,  to  lose 
$4,500  at  one  clip  and  at  the  same  time  realise  that 
he's  got  consumption.  I  tell  you  it  strikes  me  as 
pretty  hard  lines  for  poor  Bauer.  The  worst  of  it 
is  this  mess  about  his  father.  That  seems  awful. 
And  there  isn't  anyone  more  affectionate  and  de- 
pendent than  Bauer.  That's  the  reason  he  took  up 
with  me,  because  he  had  to  have  someone.  He 
doesn't  know  I'm  writing  this  sort  of  a  letter  about 
him,  if  he  did  he'd  object,  but  I  feel  as  if  something 
ought  to  be  done.  Perhaps  you  and  mother  can 
think  out  some  plan  to  help  him.  If  I  could  see  some 
way  to  cut  down  my  expenses  here  I  would  do  it  and 
put  in  my  little  to  help.  But  I'm  living  as  close  to 
the  line  as  I  can.  The  school  is  expensive  and  I  don't 
know  what  I  can  do  until  I  get  out  and  begin  to  make 
instead  of  mar  dollars." 

Paul  took  this  letter  to  Esther.  And  it  hap- 
pened that  while  he  was  reading  it  to  her,  Helen  came 
in.  Paul  stopped  reading  and  looked  at  Esther. 

"  It's  all  right.  Let  Helen  hear  it.  I'm  sure 
Walter  meant  it  for  a  family  letter." 

They  were  all  shocked  at  the  news.  And  Helen 
seemed  even  more  moved  by  the  letter  than  her  father 
and  mother,  though  she  made  no  remark  of  any  kind 
until  Esther  began  to  look  at  her  with  some 


194.  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

concern.  Paul  said,  after  a  moment  of  sober 
thought : 

"  I  believe  Masters  can  do  something  for  him  out 
there  at  Tolchaco.  There  is  the  old  Council  Hogon 
out  there  in  the  cottonwoods  past  the  'dobe  flats. 
Bauer  could  sleep  there.  It's  about  the  same  as  out- 
doors. And  he  could  do  something  perhaps  at  the 
trading  post  to  help  pay  for  his  board.  I'll  write 
to  Masters  at  once  and  see  what  he  says.  And — I 
have  another  idea  that  I  think  will  do  something. 
We  can't  let  a  fellow  like  Bauer  go  down  without 
doing  something  and  if  he  objects  to  being  helped, 
why,  we'll  just  box  him  up  and  ship  him  out  there 
f.  o.  b." 

After  Paul  had  gone  down  to  the  office  Mrs.  Doug- 
las and  Helen  continued  the  discussion  over  Walter's 
letter. 

"  What  other  idea  does  father  have  to  help  Mr. 
Bauer?  "  asked  Helen. 

"  I  don't  know  unless  he  is  thinking  of  that  pre- 
cious book  of  his ! "  Mrs.  Douglas  laughed  and 
Helen  joined  her. 

It  had  come  to  be  a  good  natured  joke  in  the 
Douglas  household  that  Paul's  book  was  such  a  great 
failure  that  publishers  had  it  listed  among  the  "  six 
worst  sellers  "  if  anyone  ever  had  the  courage  to 
print  it.  He  had  put  in  a  tremendous  amount  of 
hard  work  on  the  volume  which  was  a  bold  treat- 
ment in  original  form  of  the  Race  Question  in 
America.  The  manuscript  had  been  sent  to  eight 
different  publishers  and  had  been  returned,  in  three 
instances  with  scathing  comments. 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  195 

Paul  doggedly  clung  to  his  first  estimate  of  the 
book.  Each  rejection  by  the  last  publisher  only 
served  to  increase  his  faith  in  what  he  had  writ- 
ten. 

"  I  tell  you,  Esther,  the  publishers  don't  know  a 
thing.  Half  the  time  their  office  readers  can't  spell. 
They  don't  know  gold  from  mica  schist.  Half  the 
books  the  publishers  put  out  are  dead  failures. 
They  don't  know  anything  more  about  it  than  a 
native  of  Ponape  knows  about  making  an  igloo." 

Esther  smiled. 

"  You  are  naturally  a  little  prejudiced,  don't  you 
think?  But  I  don't  blame  you.  It's  lucky  for  us 
though,  that  we  don't  depend  on  book  sales  for  a 
living.  Let's  see,  how  much  has  the  book  cost  you 
so  far?" 

"  Well,  in  typewriting,  and  postage  on  returned 
manuscript  it  has  cost  me  about  one  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars  "  said  Paul  good  naturedly.  "  But  I'll 
send  it  to  every  publisher  in  America  before  I'll  give 
up.  I've  written  a  good  book  and  I  know  it.  And 
I've  made  up  my  mind  to  one  thing,  Esther.  When 
it  comes  to  making  terms  I'll  sell  the  manuscript  out- 
right for  cash  and  give  the  money  away  to  the  most 
needy  cause  I  can  find." 

"  Better  have  the  stipulation  with  the  publishers 
stereotyped,  father,"  said  Helen,  who  was  present 
when  this  conversation  was  held.  "  It  will  save  you 
time  and  money." 

"Very  well,  Miss,"  replied  her  father.  "But 
don't  you  dare  ask  for  any  of  this  extra  when  my 
ship  does  come  in.  Not  a  cent  of  it  does  this  un- 


196  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

grateful,  unappreciative  family  get.  It  is  my  book 
and  the  *  child  of  my  heart '  and  if  it  brings  me 
anything  I  will  spend  it  in  riotous  living  on  the  other 
fellow." 

Esther  and  Helen  laughed  and  Paul  went  down  to 
the  office  and  courageously  expressed  the  manuscript 
to  one  of  the  eastern  publishers  who  had  not 
yet  seen  it. 

All  this  had  occurred  several  months  before 
Walter's  letter  about  Bauer  and  when  Paul  went 
down  to  the  office  after  getting  the  news  his  heart 
and  mind  were  burdened  with  plans  for  Bauer's  re- 
lief. He  began  to  open  his  mail  and  a  letter  from 
the  eastern  publisher  specially  interested  him. 
After  reading  it,  he  looked  at  the  check  accompany- 
ing the  letter  and  chuckled  in  anticipation  of  meet- 
ing Esther  and  Helen  at  lunch  when  he  came  home. 

The  mother  and  daughter  were  continuing  their 
talk  about  Walter's  letter. 

"  Can  Mr.  Bauer  get  well  out  there?  Walter  did 
not  say  very  clearly?  "  Helen  asked. 

"  Many  cases  like  this  do  recover,"  said  Esther. 
"  But  he  ought  to  go  at  once.  If  he  is  having  severe 
hemorrhages  that  will  be  his  only  hope." 

Helen  was  silent  for  some  moments. 

"  How  much  did  Walter  say  it  would  cost  to  keep 
him  out  there  a  year?  " 

"  He  said  three  hundred  dollars." 

"  It  seems  like  a  very  small  sum,  doesn't  it?  " 

"  It  certainly  does.  But  you  remember  in  some 
of  Mr.  Masters's  letters  to  your  father  about  the  mis- 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  197 

sion  expenses  at  Tolchaco  how  ridiculous  the  amounts 
seemed  to  us?  You  remember  one  year  the  entire 
mission  force  including  seven  persons  lived  on  less 
than  fifteen  dollars  a  month  for  each?  I  suppose 
Walter  had  something  like  that  in  mind.  And  you 
remember  how  often  in  his  letters  Walter  has  spoken 
of  Bauer's  horror  of  the  luxurious  habits  of  one  of 
the  students  at  Burrton  as  if  it  were  a  great 
wrong?  " 

"  It  was  Van  Shaw,"  said  Helen  with  a  short  laugh. 
"  Walter  spoke  last  Christmas  about  the  solid  silver 
dog  collars  Mr.  Van  Shaw  purchased  for  his  kennel. 
Fancy  Mr.  Bauer  buying  solid  silver  dog  collars ! 
Fancy  him  even  buying  a  dog ! " 

"  Unless  it  was  to  prevent  someone  from  abusing 
it.  I  never  met  a  young  man  with  such  a  kind  heart 
as  Bauer." 

Helen  did  not  answer.  She  sat  with  her  hands 
clasped  over  her  knees,  looking  off  through  the  win- 
dow. At  last  she  rose  and  went  into  her  room,  and 
returned  almost  immediately. 

"  Mother,"  she  said,  with  a  note  of  hesitation  that 
was  new  to  her,  "  would  it  be  all  right  for  me  to 
help  Mr.  Bauer  out  of  my  allowance?  If  the  rest 
of  the  family  is  going  to  help  I'd  like  to  give  twenty- 
five  dollars." 

She  put  the  money  into  her  mother's  lap  and  sat 
down  in  front  of  her. 

Mrs.  Douglas  was  startled  at  the  girl's  perfectly 
transparent  act.  She  thought  she  knew  Helen,  but 
for  a  moment  she  questioned  her  own  insight.  Then 


198  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

she  did  what  she  had  always  done  in  the  intimacy 
she  had  encouraged  between  herself  and  her  children. 

"  Why  do  you  want  to  do  this,  Helen?  " 

"  Because — because  I  can't  help  feeling " 

"Well?" 

"  I  don't  love  him,  mother, — no, — I  am  sure  of 
myself.  But  it  seems  dreadful  to  think  of  him  dying, 
just  because  of  the  need  of  a  little  money.  I  have 
never  been  sick.  I  wonder  how  I  should  feel  to  face 
such  a  fate.  I  believe  it  would  drive  me  crazy." 

"  But  how  do  you  think  Mr.  Bauer  will  understand 
your  gift?  If  he  is  so  sensitive  as  Walter  says " 

Over  Helen's  face  the  warm  colour  swept. 

"Why  does  he  need  to  know?  We  are  all  going 
to  help,  aren't  we?  But  we  don't  need  to  tell  him. 
I  would  not  have  him  know  for  the  world." 

"  Wait  till  father  comes  home.  We  will  talk  it 
over  with  him,"  said  Esther  after  a  pause.  "  I 
don't  question  your  sincerity.  It  is  a  terrible  loss 
to  lose  the  physical  strength  and  face  death  at  a 
sure  distance.  Poor  Bauer!  And  all  that  family 
trouble,  too.  He  never  hinted  at  that  when  he  was 
here." 

Helen  recalled  her  innocent  questioning  of  Bauer 
about  his  people  and  the  silence  he  had  maintained 
at  the  time.  In  the  light  of  what  she  knew  now, 
the  figure  of  the  German  student  assumed  a  tragic 
character,  invested  with  deep  pathos,  and  she  had 
to  confess  that  it  was  treading  on  dangerous  ground 
to  dwell  too  long  on  the  picture.  Still  she  asserted 
stoutly  that  her  feeling  was  one  of  simple  friend- 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  199 

ship,  and  even  went  so  far  as  to  anticipate  a  possible 
question  again  on  her  mother's  part. 

"  You  must  not  think,  Mommee,  that  I  have  any 
other  feeling  for  him.  That  is  not  possible.  The 
man  I  marry  must  have  money.  And  poor  Mr. 
Bauer  has  lost  all  of  his.  That  is  the  reason  I  am 
willing  to  help  him.  Money  seems  so  absolutely  ne- 
cessary in  this  world,  mother,  isn't  it?  " 

"  Not  so  necessary  as  a  good  many  other  things." 

"  But  in  this  case,  mother,  what  else  can  do  any 
good?  It  is  money  that  Mr.  Bauer  needs.  Not 
sympathy  nor — nor — even  friendship,  just  money. 
Is  there  anything  else  that  can  save  his  life?  " 

"  It  seems  not." 

"  Then  money  is  the  great  thing,"  said  Helen 
with  a  show  of  getting  the  better  of  her  mother  in 
an  argument.  "  I  don't  pretend  to  hide  my  admira- 
tion for  money.  You  know,  mother,  it  is  the  most 
powerful  thing  in  the  world." 

"  There  are  other  things,"  said  Esther  quietly. 
She  did  not  try  to  argue  with  Helen  over  the  subject. 
They  had  several  times  gone  over  the  same  ground 
and  each  time  Esther  had  realised  more  deeply  and 
with  a  growing  feeling  of  pain  that  Helen  had  al- 
most a  morbid  passion  for  money  and  the  things 
that  money  could  buy.  She  was  not  avaricious.  On 
the  contrary,  she  was  remarkably  generous  and  un- 
selfish in  the  use  of  her  allowance.  But  there  was 
a  deep  and  far  reaching  prejudice  in  the  girl's  mind 
for  all  the  brilliant,  soft,  luxurious,  elegant  side  of 
wealth  and  its  allurements  that  made  Esther  trem- 


300  THE   HIGH    CALLING 

ble  more  and  more  for  the  girl's  future,  especially 
when  her  marriage  was  thought  of. 

All  this  had  its  bearing  on  Esther's  thought  of 
Bauer.  He  had  never  been  to  her  a  possible  thought 
as  Helen's  lover.  All  his  own  and  his  people's  his- 
tory were  against  him.  But  no  one  had  ever  come 
into  the  Douglas  family  circle  who  had  won  such  a 
feeling  of  esteem,  and  Esther  had  felt  drawn  towards 
the  truly  homeless  lad  with  a  compassion  that  might 
in  time  have  yielded  to  him  a  place  as  a  possible  mem- 
ber of  the  family.  Now  anything  like  that  relation 
seemed  remote,  and  Helen's  own  frank  declaration 
put  the  matter  out  of  the  question.  Over  all  these 
things  Esther  Douglas  pondered  and  in  her  simple 
straightforward  fashion  laid  them  at  the  feet  of  her 
God  for  the  help  she  could  not  give  herself. 

When  Paul  came  home  to  luncheon  both  Esther 
and  Helen  could  see  at  once  that  something  had  hap- 
pened greatly  to  please  him.  Paul  was  transpar- 
ent and  never  made  any  pretence  at  any  sort  of  con- 
cealment of  his  feelings. 

"  Yes,  now  you  people  laugh  at  that,"  he  said  as 
he  handed  the  eastern  publisher's  letter  over  to 
Esther. 

Esther  read  the  letter  out  loud.  It  was  an  ex- 
tended business  statement  acknowledging  the  re- 
ceipt of  the  book  manuscript  and  Paul's  blunt  an- 
nouncement of  the  terms  he  was  willing  to  make  for 
it  publication;  cash  down,  waiving  all  royalty 
rights,  the  book  to  be  published  entirely  at  the  pub- 
lisher's risk  and  the  plates  to  be  the  property  of  the 
publishing  house,  no  rights  reserved  for  the  author. 


THE    HIGH   CALLING  201 

The  eastern  publisher  acknowledged  the  frank- 
ness of  the  author's  note,  which  he  said  was  unusual. 
Also  the  terms,  which  were  not  generally  considered, 
few  manuscripts  being  purchased  outright  by  the 
firm.  However,  the  book  was  more  than  favourably 
reported  by  two  of  the  three  principal  readers  and 
by  the  senior  member  of  the  house,  and  they  were 
prepared  to  make  an  offer  in  the  shape  of  the  enclosed 
check  which  it  was  hoped  would  be  satisfactory  to 
Mr.  Douglas. 

"  Five  hundred,"  said  Esther,  reading  the  amount 
as  she  held  up  the  check  for  Helen  to  see.  "  Why, 
isn't  it  worth  more  than  that?  " 

"  The  way  you  people  have  been  talking  lately,'" 
said  Paul,  pretending  great  indignation,  "  it  wasn't 
worth  five  cents.  I'm  satisfied.  At  ten  per  cent, 
royalty  they  would  have  to  sell  five  thousand  copies 
and  it  would  be  two  or  three  years  before  I  got  the 
money.  No,  I  prefer  the  cash,  and  let  them  take  the 
risk.  Now  we  can  help  Bauer.  That  is,  I  can. 
This  is  all  my  philanthropy.  I'll  send  one  hun- 
dred dollars  to  Masters  for  the  mission  work  and  the 
balance  for  Bauer.  Walter's  estimate  of  three  hun- 
dred dollars  a,  year  is  too  small.  It  won't  give  the 
fellow  the  things  he  needs.  My!  But  won't  it  be 
fine  to  help  him!  There's  nothing  like  money,  is 
there,  Esther?" 

"  Just  what  I  keep  telling  her,"  said  Helen,  her 
eyes  sparkling  and  her  lips  smiling  at  the  sight  of 
her  mother's  somewhat  grave  acceptance  of  Paul's 
statement. 

"  I'm  glad  he  is  going  to  get  the  benefit  of  it," 


202  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

said  Esther  heartily.  "  And  I  think  we  owe  you  an 
apology  for  the  way  we  have  treated  your  little 
book.  I  feel  proud  to  think  my  husband  can  write 
a  five  hundred  dollar  book.  I  hope  it  will  be  one  of 
the  six  best  sellers." 

"  If  it  is,  the  publishers  will  make  a  lot,"  said 
Paul.  "But  I  hardly  think  it.  Trashy  fiction 
makes  best  sellers.  My  book  is  written  to  make  peo- 
ple think,  not  to  lose  their  thoughts.  So  I've  no  false 
ambitions  for  it." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  in  course  of  time  Paul's  vol- 
ume sold  between  seven  and  eight  thousand  copies 
and  then  the  sale  ceased.  But  the  book  had  good 
notices  from  several  thoughtful  reviewers  and  gave 
him  considerable  advertising,  encouraging  him  to  go 
on  with  another  volume  on  popular  government. 

"  Now  the  problem  will  be  to  get  Bauer  to  take 
the  money,"  said  Esther.  "  It's  going  to  be  a  deli- 
cate matter." 

"  Do  you  think  so  ?  I  hadn't  thought  of  that. 
Surely  Walter  can  manage  it.  He  will  have  to 
take  it." 

"  I  think  you  will  find  it  is  not  so  easy.  It  seemed 
to  me  last  winter  that  Mr.  Bauer  was  about  the 
most  stubborn  and  independent  young  man  I  ever 
saw." 

"  But  what  can  he  do  ?  He  can't  help  himself. 
He  will  have  to  take  it." 

"  Leave  it  to  Walter  to  manage,"  said  Esther. 
"  He  is  better  acquainted  with  him  than  we  are." 

So  Paul  wrote  Walter,  enclosing  a  check  for  $400, 


THE    HIGH   CALLING  203 

and  asking  him  to  manage  the  matter  with  Bauer  the 
best  he  could,  and  at  the  same  time  he  wrote  to  Mas- 
ters telling  him  of  Bauer  and  making  inquiry  about 
the  climate  and  especially  concerning  the  possibility 
of  Bauer  fitting  into  any  work  about  the  mis- 
sion. 

After  Paul  had  gone  away  from  the  table  to  his 
office  to  attend  to  this  matter,  Esther  took  out 
Helen's  money  and  quietly  handed  it  to  her. 

"  You  won't  need  to  offer  this  now." 

"  No,  not  now,"  said  Helen,  blushing. 

"  Nor  any  time,  I  hope.  If  Mr.  Bauer  gets  well 
there  at  Tolchaco  he  will  probably  be  able  to  secure 
permanent  work  and  take  care  of  himself." 

"  Yes,"  Helen  said,  after  a  pause  in  which  she 
seemed  to  her  mother  about  to  make  a  confidence. 
But  she  did  not  seem  quite  certain  of  herself  and 
finally  without  any  more  words  went  up  to  her  room. 

Two  days  later  Walter  received  his  father's  let- 
ter which  he  read  with  a  sense  of  great  rejoicing. 

"Why,  it's  just  like  a  story  book!  Dear  old 
pater !  He's  the  best  ever !  " 

Then  he  took  up  the  check  and  began  to  consider 
how  he  would  present  the  matter  to  Bauer.  No  one 
knew  better  than  himself  how  sensitive  Bauer  could 
be  on  occasion.  But  he  was  helpless,  and  under  the 
circumstances,  what  else  could  he  do  but  let  his 
friends  come  to  his  assistance?  If  there  was  no  other 
way  he  could  probably  be  prevailed  on  to  take  the 
money  as  a  loan  and  pay  back  when  his  royalties 
came  due  on  the  incubator  sales. 


204  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

He  was  going  over  the  matter  when  Bauer  came 
in  from  his  room  across  the  hall. 

"How  goes  it?  "  asked  Walter  cheerfully. 

"  All  right,"  said  Bauer  gravely.  "  I  don't  be- 
lieve anything  ails  me.  Haven't  had  another  since 
the  last  one." 

"  No  ?  Well,  what  you  want  to  do  is  to  get  right 
out  to  the  painted  desert.  Why  don't  you  start  ?  " 

"  The  walking  is  poor,  and  I  never  did  en j  oy  the 
hot,  dusty  cars." 

"  Letters ! "  said  one  of  the  boys  who  roomed  on 
the  next  floor.  He  opened  the  door  as  he  spoke  and 
threw  Walter  two  letters  and  seeing  Bauer,  he  said, 
"  One  for  you !  "  threw  it  at  him  and  went  on. 

Walter  opened  his  letters,  which  were  from  his 
mother  and  Louis.  When  he  looked  up  from  his 
reading  and  glanced  at  Bauer  he  saw  that  some- 
thing had  happened. 

"  From  him,"  said  Bauer  briefly. 

He  handed  his  letter  over  to  Walter.  It  was 
dated  and  postmarked  at  Monte  Carlo  and  con- 
tained a  draft  on  New  York  for  four  hundred  dol- 
lars. 

"  I  don't  ask  you  to  do  anything  or  forgive  or 
anything  like  that.  But  as  proof  that  hell  is  better 
than  this  place,  I  am  sending  you  the  last  dollar  I 
have  after  losing  the  rest  of  it  at  the  table.  Per- 
haps, even  in  hell  where  I  am  going,  there  will  be 
some  respite  granted  me  for  not  being  totally  de- 
praved." 

That  was  all,  not  even  an  initial  signed. 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  205 

"  It  means "  Walter  stammered. 

"  That  he  has  committed  suicide — yes — I  sup- 
pose  " 

"  But  there's  been  no  newspaper  account.  No 
item  in  the  New  York  journals." 

Bauer  shook  his  head.  "  The  cases  at  Monte 
Carlo  don't  get  into  the  newspapers."  And  then 
to  Walter's  embarrassment,  Bauer  broke  down  and 
sobbed  as  if  he  would  never  stop.  But  after  all,  his 
father,  in  spite  of  his  sins,  had  really  loved  the  boy, 
and  Bauer  was  of  a  very  affectionate  nature  which 
had  never  in  all  his  lifetime  been  satisfied. 

Before  Walter  could  offer  a  word  of  sympathy 
Bauer  got  up  and  bolted  for  his  room.  Walter  sus- 
pected what  was  coming  and  before  Bauer  could  lock 
his  door  he  had  gone  in  after  him.  The  hemorrhage 
was  severe.  When  Bauer  was  through  with  it  and 
on  his  couch,  Walter  rapidly  outlined  a  plan  for 
Bauer.  He  must  get  out  to  the  painted  desert  at 
once. 

"  I  wanted  to  wait  until  you  could  go,  but  it  isn't 
fair  to  ask  you  before  term  closes  and  that  won't 
be  for  six  weeks.  Oh,  yes,  I  can  make  it  alone  all 
right.  Don't  worry  over  that.  And  now  I've  got 
this  money,  that  settles  it." 

Walter  wondered  if  he  ought  to  tell  him  about 
the  money  from  home.  Finally  he  did  tell  him 
frankly  and  was  pleased  at  the  way  Bauer  took  it. 
When  Walter  suggested  that  in  case  he  had  to  stay 
out  there  any  length  of  time,  the  money  would  be 
held  in  trust  for  him,  Bauer  did  not  object,  simply 


206  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

saying  that  by  that  time  he  would  either  be  well  or 
dead. 

Two  days  after  this,  Paul  wrote  that  Mr.  Masters 
at  Tolchaco  had  written  cordially,  saying  Bauer 
would  be  welcome  at  the  mission  and  could  have  the 
old  Council  Hogon.  He  thought  if  his  case  was  like 
a  number  of  others  he  had  known,  that  it  would  be 
perfectly  possible  for  him  in  a  year  or  two  to  be  of 
real  service  about  the  mission. 

Walter  gave  out  all  this  information  as  he  helped 
Bauer  pack  up.  He  had  misgivings  about  letting 
him  start  alone,  but  after  consulting  the  doctor,  con- 
cluded there  was  no  special  risk  for  Bauer  and  when 
the  day  came  for  him  to  leave,  he  was  much  pleased 
to  note  Bauer's  good  spirits  in  spite  of  the  shock  of 
his  father's  act  and  his  own  dubious  future. 

Masters  had  sent  word  that  Bauer  was  to  go  to 
Canon  Diablo  where  a  wagon  would  be  waiting  to 
drive  him  the  twenty-four  miles  to  Tolchaco.  Walter 
went  down  and  saw  him  comfortably  started  and 
then  went  back  to  his  room,  feeling  relieved  to  know 
that  matters  were  going  so  well,  after  promising 
Bauer  that  if  possible  he  would  come  and  see  him 
during  the  summer.  It  would  depend  on  the  finan- 
cial outlook. 

At  Chicago,  Bauer  changed  to  a  tourist  car  and 
found  as  companions,  two  other  young  men,  both 
going  to  Flagstaff  to  live  in  tents  at  the  base  of  the 
San  Francisco  Mountains.  Before  reaching  Albu- 
querque the  three  young  men  had  become  well  ac- 
quainted and  had  good  naturedly  exchanged  joking 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  207 

statements  about  their  "  cases,"  and  Bauer,  who  had 
suffered  from  a  slight  flow  just  after  leaving  Kansas 
city,  boasted  that  he  was  able  to  control  his  lungs 
by  pressing  his  tongue  hard  against  the  roof  of  his 
mouth  and  resting  his  chest  on  the  back  of  the  car 
seat  in  front. 

When  the  train  reached  Hardy,  a  few  miles  north 
of  the  Little  Colorado,  there  was  a  long  stop,  ex- 
plained by  the  conductor  as  caused  by  a  cloudburst 
at  Winslow.  The  train  made  several  attempts  to 
start  on  to  Colfax,  but  finally  backed  slowly  down 
into  Hardy,  where  it  was  stalled  for  the  night.  In 
the  morning  the  information  slowly  reached  the  pas- 
sengers that  there  were  fifteen  miles  of  washouts 
east  of  Winslow  and  it  would  be  an  indefinite  time 
before  repairs  could  be  made. 

A  few  cowboys,  Mexicans  and  Indians  were  evi- 
dently chronic  and  constant  loafers  about  the  little 
station.  Among  them  was  a  teamster  loading  stuff 
on  a  wagon.  Bauer  noticed  two  boxes  marked  Tol- 
chaco  and  asked  the  man  about  them. 

"  I'm  taking  them  over  by  Mr.  Masters's  orders. 
Usually  go  to  Canon  Diablo,  but  no  telling  how  long 
it'll  be  to  get  there  with  number  two.  Mr.  Masters 
wants  the  stuff  bad.  Truck  for  them  Injuns  at  the 
mission." 

"  But  aren't  we  on  the  north  side  of  the  river 
here?  How  will  you  get  over  to  the  mission?  Isn't 
that  on  the  other  side?"  asked  Bauer. 

"  Sure.  We  can  ford  it  there,  if  the  water  ain't 
too  fierce." 


208  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

Bauer  thought  awhile  and  then  asked  if  he  might 
go  with  the  teamster.  There  was  room  in  the  wagon 
for  his  trunk  and  bag,  and  after  securing  his  effects 
from  the  train  he  transferred  to  the  wagon,  and  bid- 
ding a  cheery  farewell  to  his  travelling  companions, 
who  he  said  might  have  to  stay  on  the  train  two  or 
three  days,  the  teamster  drove  off  with  Bauer  across 
the  shimmering  desert. 

They  reached  the  river  the  next  day  about  noon, 
after  a  glorious  night  which  Bauer  will  never  forget, 
as  he  slept  with  his  face  upturned  to  the  diamond 
stars  of  that  desert  expanse,  breathing  that  pure  air 
of  God's  all  out  of  doors. 

The  river  was  high  from  the  recent  heavy  rain* 
in  the  mountains  but  the  teamster  said  he  could  make 
the  ford  all  right.  This  was  at  a  point  nearly  a 
mile  above  the  mission  which  was  not  visible  owing 
to  a  bend  in  the  stream. 

Bauer,  who  was  totally  unfamiliar  with  the  coun- 
try, the  river,  the  customs,  the  entire  situation, 
calmly  sat  in  his  place  as  the  driver  started  his  team 
down  the  shelving  bank  into  the  chocolate  coloured 
stream. 

The  water  was  a  little  over  the  hubs  of  the  wheels 
at  first  and  it  seemed  to  be  of  that  uniform  depth  as 
the  horses  slowly  walked  along.  But  suddenly  with- 
out warning  the  off  horse  sank  down  clear  over  his 
back.  The  next  minute  the  wagon  wheels  tipped 
down  as  if  they  had  run  over  the  edge  of  a  preci- 
pice a  mile  high. 

The  driver  yelled  and  swore  in  several  languages, 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  209 

but  the  nigh  horse  plunged  and  then  sank  over  his 
back.  The  current  caught  the  entire  outfit  and 
turned  it  completely  over,  tumbling  horses,  wagon 
and  stuff  over  and  over  like  a  roller.  As  Bauer  felt 
the  water  closing  over  him  he  had  a  momentary 
glimpse  of  two  figures  on  the  south  bank  of  the 
river  running  and  gesticulating,  one  a  man,  the  other 
a  woman.  He  felt  himself  struggling  in  a  confused 
tangle  of  wagon  wheels,  floundering  horses,  yelling 
driver,  boxes  and  muddy  water.  Then  something 
struck  him  on  the  head.  He  struggled  to  help  him- 
self, throwing  his  arms  out  blindly,  was  aware  that 
someone  had  hold  of  his  hair  and  was  striking  him 
in  the  face,  of  a  great  roaring  and  rushing  sound, 
and  then  he  lost  all  consciousness  as  the  river  bore 
him  and  his  would-be  rescuers  down  the  stream  to- 
gether. 


CHAPTER    XH 

THE  penetrating  light  of  the  desert  came  into 
the  east  opening  of  the  Council  Hogon  at  Tol- 
chaco,  and  bathed  in  its  enveloping  flood  the  strip 
of  sand  that  lay  in  the  opening,  up  to  a  white  and 
black  Navajo  rug  on  which  was  lying  a  quiet  figure 
over  which  had  been  thrown  a  bright  coloured  Mex- 
ican serape. 

An  old  Indian  was  sitting  outside  the  hogon  close 
by  the  entrance,  and  within  an  arm's  length  just  in- 
side sat  a  white  man  gravely  watching  the  recum- 
bent figure  on  the  rug. 

Across  the  figure  on  the  rug,  opposite  the  white 
man,  sat  a  young  woman,  also  quietly  and  gravely 
watching. 

Outside,  the  'dobe  flats  stretched  brown  and  bare 
until  they  melted  into  the  confused  and  fantastic 
rock  piles  of  twisted  and  pictured  desert  stone.  In 
the  other  direction  an  irregular  streak  of  light  green 
trailed  along,  marking  the  winding  of  the  river 
bound  by  twisted  cottonwoods  and  vivid  patches  of 
corn  fields.  Through  the  shimmer  of  the  heat  far 
off,  fifty  miles  distant,  were  flung  up  against  a  tur- 
quoise sky  the  peaks  of  the  San  Francisco  moun- 
tains, across  the  front  of  which  a  trailing  cloud  had 
begun  to  form.  On  a  slightly  rising  ledge  of  rock 

210 


THE    HIGH    CALLING 

stood  the  mission  buildings,  and  through  the  clear 
still  air,  children's  voices  came  floating  down  to  the 
hogon,  where  the  white  man  and  the  young  woman 
were  silently  watching.  A  group  of  Navajos  was 
gathered  at  the  trader's  store,  some  little  distance 
away,  their  faces  turned  in  the  direction  of  the 
hogon,  their  ponies  standing  near  by  or  tethered  to 
the  cottonwood,  by  the  river. 

Suddenly  the  figure  on  the  rug  stirred,  its  right 
arm  rose  slowly  and  the  hand  made  an  effort  to  touch 
the  fringe  of  the  serape. 

The  white  man  stooped  forward,  gently  took  the 
hand  and  held  it  a  moment  in  his  own.  As  he  laid 
it  down,  he  smiled  at  the  other  watcher  and  said : 

"  I  believe  he's  coming  on  all  right.  The  Father 
is  good  to  him." 

The  young  woman  put  her  hands  over  her  face 
and  her  fingers  were  trembling.  A  tear  was  on  her 
cheek  when  she  took  her  hands  away  and  clasped 
them  over  her  knees.  Then  she  rose  and  went  out 
of  the  eastern  doorway,  when  she  stood  a  moment, 
her  clear  gaze  resting  on  the  old  Indian  sitting  there 
with  his  back  against  the  hogon.  He  raised  his  head 
and  asked  her  a  question. 

"  Yes,  the  Father  is  good.  He  will  live,  Mr.  Clif- 
ford says." 

She  went  back  into  the  hogon  and  to  her  surprise 
the  figure  on  the  rug  was  sitting  up.  It  was  Bauer, 
and  he  was  saying  in  his  slow,  deliberate  fash- 
ion: 

"  I'm  not  certain,  I  seem  to  be  confused,  but  this 


is  Tolchaco,  isn't  it?  When  did  I  arrive?  I  don't 
seem  to  remember  well." 

"  You  arrived  rather  unexpectedly  yesterday," 
said  Clifford,  with  a  smile  that  had  a  good  day's 
nursing  in  it.  "  In  fact,  you  arrived  in  a  hurry. 
Don't  talk.  You  don't  have  to." 

"  My  head,"  said  Bauer,  and  he  laid  down  again. 

"  That's  right,  son.  We  prescribe  perfect  quiet 
for  you.  You  don't  need  even  to  ask  a  question. 
There  will  be  time  enough." 

And  so  Bauer  found  out  as  the  desert  days  slipped 
by  and  he  slowly  and  surely  drank  in  health  and 
strength.  He  would  lie  there  in  perfect  content- 
ment, each  day  noting  a  little  more  of  life.  The 
nights  were  splendid  with  God's  own  peace.  The 
friends  would  place  his  cot  near  the  opening  of  the 
hogon  and  from  where  he  lay  he  could  see  the  stars 
come  out  and  blaze  all  up  the  half  dome  of  the  vis- 
ible sky.  Peshlekietsetti,  the  old  silver  smith,  who 
had  been  near  the  door  the  first  morning  after  the 
accident  on  the  river,  would  come  and  sit  down  in- 
side the  hogon  to  relieve  the  other  watchers.  And 
even  after  there  was  no  particular  need  of  special 
nursing,  the  old  man  would  come  and  gravely,  with- 
out attempt  to  speak,  sit  there  by  him,  occasionally 
working  at  some  bit  of  silver  ornament.  Groups  of 
the  children  from  the  mission  would  come  and  stand 
at  the  hogon  opening,  and  often  come  by  twos  or 
threes  sent  by  Mr.  Clifford  with  some  token  which 
they  left  on  the  sand  and  then  shyly  ran  back  to 
the  mission.  The  doctor  at  Flagstaff  had  been  over 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  213 

and  he  had  pronounced  Bauer's  case  to  be  entirely 
susceptible  to  climate,  diet  and  time.  And  Bauer, 
who  had  heard  him  talking  with  Clifford,  from  that 
moment  made  wonderful  progress,  and  to  Clifford's 
delight  was  soon  able  to  walk  about,  and  even  go  as 
far  as  the  river,  where  he  would  sit  down  on  the 
fallen  trunk  of  an  old  cottonwood  and  watch  the 
Navajos  on  the  other  side  cultivate  their  corn  and 
melon  patches. 

Hs  was  sitting  there  one  afternoon  watching  the 
thick  waters  trickling  by  and  wondering  how  such 
an  insignificant  and  shallow  stream  could  overturn 
a  heavy  wagon  and  two  horses,  when  the  man  called 
Clifford,  who  had  been  mending  a  harness  at  a  bench 
under  a  tree  near  by,  came  and  sat  down  by  him, 
bringing  a  part  of  his  work  from  the  bench. 

"I  have  a  lot  of  questions  I  want  to  ask,"  said 
Bauer,  watching  the  Mission  worker  as  he  sewed  on 
a  buckle. 

"  All  right.  But  before  you  begin  might  as  well 
say  to  you  I  was  born  in  Vermont." 

"  Born  in  Vermont?  " 

"  Yes,  ever  hear  of  it?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Bauer  slowly.  '*  But  what  has  that 
to  do  with  my  asking  questions  ?  " 

"  You'll  see  when  you  begin." 

Bauer  smiled  at  the  other's  irresistible  grin.  He 
nad  already  made  up  his  mind  to  like  Clifford  tre- 
mendously. 

"  Well,  then,  I  want  to  know,  first,  who  saved  my 
life  when  I  was  drowning  ?  " 


THE    HIGH    CALLING 

"Why  don't  you  ask  Miss  Gray?" 

"  I  will,  if  you  can't  tell  me." 

Clifford  chuckled  softly. 

"  I  don't  know  why  I  shouldn't  tell  you.  But 
do  you  feel  strong  enough  to  stand  a  good  sized 
shock?" 

"  It  takes  a  good  deal  to  shock  me,"  said  Bauer 
gravely,  his  mind  recurring  to  his  father. 

"  Of  course  we  haven't  encouraged  your  talking 
much  up  to  this  time,  and  you  don't  strike  me  as  a 
very  rapid  fire  speaker,  not  exactly  what  is  called 
garrulous,  you  know.  We've  been  wondering 
whether  you  would  care  to  hear  about  your  little 
upset  in  there." 

Bauer  coloured  a  little.  "  I  feel  somewhat 
ashamed  to  think  I  haven't  asked  before —  But " 

"  Yes,  we  know.  Perfectly.  You  don't  need  to 
say  anything.  But  you  feel  pretty  strong  now, 
don't  you?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Bauer  patiently.  "  I  feel  strong 
enough  to  know  a  good  many  things  about  this  won- 
derful place." 

"  'Tis  wonderful,  isn't  it?"  said  Clifford,  laying 
his  work  down  on  the  log  and  pointing  at  the  river. 
"  That  old  stream  is  one  of  the  queerest  produc- 
tions God  ever  made.  I'm  not  criticising  it,  or  say- 
ing I  could  have  done  any  better.  But  one  day  it 
rares  up  big  enough  to  drown  a  pair  of  hippota- 
muses  and  the  next  day  a  child  can  dam  it  up  with 
a  piece  of  mud,  and  the  dust  blows  out  of  the  chan- 
nel so  bad  that  it  needs  a  sprinkler  to  settle  it. 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  215 

That's  the  Little  Colorado.  It  will  bear  watch- 
ing" 

Clifford  picked  up  his  work  and  seemed  to  be  wait- 
ing for  Bauer  to  repeat  his  question,  but  that  was 
not  Bauer's  way,  and  Clifford,  after  glancing  at  him 
sharply,  laughed  and  said: 

"  You  can  thank  Miss  Gray  for  pulling  you  out 
of  the  river." 

"Miss  Gray?" 

"  Yes.  We  sort  of  suspicioned  that  Tracker, 
that's  the  teamster  you  came  up  with  from  Hardy, 
would  try  the  ford  and  we  went  up  there  that  day 
to  tell  him  not  to  go  in  because  a  part  of  the  ford 
ledge  had  broken  off  and  we  feared  he  hadn't  heard 
of  it.  Well,  we  were  too  late.  You  had  driven  down 
the  bank  and  were  half  way  across  before  we  sighted 
you.  Miss  Gray  was  in  the  water  before  you  upset. 
She  knew  it  was  bound  to  come.  I  got  tangled  up 
with  the  horses  and  Tracker " 

"  Wait !  "  said  Bauer  with  more  emotion  than  he 
could  control,  "  do  you  mean  to  say  that  Miss  Gray 
and  you  swam  out  to  us  while  we  were  being  rolled 
over " 

"Well,  what  would  you  do?  I  was  occupied,  as 
I  said,  with  Tracker  and  the  horses,  and  half  the 
time  I  couldn't  tell  'em  apart.  But  I  saw  Miss  Gray 
grab  you  by  the  hair  and  then  she — you'll  forgive 
her  for  it,  I  hope — she  struck  you  with  her  fist  right 
in  the  face." 

Bauer  looked  bewildered.  "  What  did  she  do 
that  for?" 


216  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

"  I  thought  maybe  you  would  want  to  know.  I 
would.  Well,  how  could  she  save  you  when  your 
arms  were  thrashing  around  like  a  windmill  and  you 
were  liable  to  grab  her  arms  and  drown  her  and  you, 
too.  So  she  had  to  strike  you.  I  know  she  is  wait- 
ing till  you  get  a  little  stronger  so  she  can  apologise." 

"  Apologise,"  murmured  Bauer. 

"  Yes.  It  wasn't  a  ladylike  thing  to  do  in  polite 
society.  But  there  wasn't  time  to  ask  your  per- 
mission or  tell  you  why  it  was  necessary.  Well, 
after  that  little  incident,  Tracker  and  the  horses  and 
I  got  so  mixed  up  with  each  other  that  we  haven't 
hardly  got  untangled  since.  There  was  one  time 
there  when  I  wasn't  quite  certain  whether  I  was  a 
horse  or  a  wagon  wheel.  We  drifted  down  here  and 
it  just  seemed  providential  and  saved  a  lot  of  carry- 
ing when  we  finally  got  out  right  here." 

Clifford  pointed  to  a  spot  down  the  stream  a  short 
ways  from  where  they  were  sitting. 

"  We  saved  the  horses,  cut  the  harness  to  bits  off 
of  'em,  but  the  wagon  went  down  and  got  sucked  into 
the  Black  Bear  quicksands  and  you  can  see  one  of 
the  wheels.  See!  over  there." 

Clifford  stood  up  and  Bauer  in  his  excitement  got 
up  on  the  log  to  see  better.  Far  down  the  channel 
near  the  opposite  bank,  one  wheel  of  the  teamster's 
wagon  showed  a  little,  the  rest  of  the  vehicle  buried 
in  the  treacherous  sands. 

"  You  and  Miss  Gray  came  ashore  up  above. 
Right  there."  Clifford  pointed  to  a  great  root  of 
a  tree  that  swayed  out  from  an  old  stump  six  feet 


THE    HIGH    CALLING 

above  the  channel.  It  protruded  from  the  bank  like 
some  fantastic  sprawling  arm. 

"  She  grabbed  that  old  root  as  you  went  whirling 
down  and  I  guess  it  was  about  time.  We  had  quite 
a  time  pumping  the  water  out  of  her  and  for  one 
while, — but  it's  lucky  you  have  a  good  head  of  hair 
and  that  you  hadn't  been  to  a  barber  lately.  Miss 
Gray  got  a  regular  grip  on  it.  We  had  quite  a 
time  separating  her  fingers  from  your  locks.  You 
see,  I'm  telling  you  because  I  thought  maybe  she 
might  be  a  little  timid  about  the  details.  If  she  has 
to  apologise  for  hitting  you  in  the  face,  it  would  be 
too  bad  to  have  to  go  on  and  ask  to  be  excused  for 
pulling  your  hair." 

"  Pulling  my  hair,"  murmured  Bauer,  in  astonish- 
ment. 

"  Yes,"  said  Clifford,  winking  one  eye.  "  Pulling 
it  as  if  she  wanted  a  lock  to  remember  you  by.  But 
that's  nothing.  You  ought  to  see  Miss  Gray  pull 
two  Hopis  out  of  the  river  one  day  last  winter.  That 
was  just  above  the  Black  Falls.  A  Hopi  can't  swim 
any  more  than  a  sailor.  But  they  never  cut  their 
hair,  so  it's  just  made  for  rescue  work.  You're  the 
fifth  person  Miss  Gray  has  pulled  out  of  this  so- 
called  stream.  She's  entitled  to  that  many  Car- 
negie medals,  but  no  one  knows  about  it  down  east 
and  our  daily  papers  here  at  Tolchaco  never  men- 
tion such  common  events  as  rescue  from  drowning. 
That  isn't  news." 

Bauer  was  silent  for  several  minutes  as  Clifford 
resumed  his  work.  He  had  been  obliged  to  thread 


218  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

a  needle  and  in  the  process  had  put  the  end  of  the 
thread  in  his  mouth. 

"You  don't  mind  if  I  ask  more  questions?  It's 
all  so  remarkable  here  and  all  that's  happened.  I 
would  like " 

"  Don't  hesitate.  It  is  one  of  the  rules  of  the 
Mission  here  never  to  get  offended,  no  matter  what 
anyone  says.  You  couldn't  hurt  our  feelings  if  you 
tried." 

"  And  I  don't  want  to  try.  I  don't  know  how 
I'm  going  to  express  my  thanks  for  all  you  have 
done,  and  especially  to  Miss  Gray." 

"That  is  a  kind  of  difficult  place,  isn't  it?  Now 
I  was  never  rescued  by  anyone;  and  I  don't  know 
just  what  I  would  say.  *  Thank  you '  sounds  kind 
of  tame.  Perhaps  you  could  throw  it  into  German 
and  make  it  sound  better." 

Bauer  looked  embarrassed  and  Clifford  at  once 
hastened  to  say. 

"  Don't  worry  over  a  little  matter  like  that.  You 
don't  need  to  say  anything  about  it.  Miss  Gray 
will  say  she  was  '  only  too  glad  to  do  it,  no  trouble 
at  all,  don't  think  of  such  a  thing,  etc.  You  know 
how  the  ladies  talk.  If  you  go  to  say  anything 
about  it  that's  what  she  will  say,  ten  to  one.  You 
needn't  be  afraid  she'll  ask  you  to  marry  her  or 
anything  like  that." 

Bauer  blushed  furiously  and  Clifford  laughed  so 
heartily  that  Bauer  could  not  help  joining  him,  al- 
though he  had  never  met  anyone  like  Clifford  and 
did  not  exactly  understand  him. 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  219 

"Tell  me  about  yourself,  Mr.  Clifford.  I'm  not 
a  native  of  Vermont  but  I  am  curious  and  I've  been 
wondering  as  I  lay  in  the  hogon  what  your  position 
here  was,  if  you  will  pardon  me?  " 

"  Pardon  you?  "  said  Clifford  cheerfully,  as  he  pro- 
ceeded to  punch  holes  in  a  tug.  "  There's  nothing 
I  like  to  talk  about  so  much  as  myself.  You  couldn't 
hit  on  a  more  interesting  topic  of  conversation 
for  me.  Well,  I'm  a  general  all  around  missionary 
at  large  and  handy  man.  One  day  I  shoe  the  horses 
and  next  day  I  help  Mr.  Masters  translate  the  Bible 
into  Navajo.  Next  day  I  dig  a  well  and  day  after 
that  I  help  old  Touchiniteel  build  a  house.  Then  I 
send  word  to  the  President  of  the  U.  S.  to  let  him 
know  that  the  cattle  men  at  Flagstaff  are  trespass- 
ing on  our  rights  at  Canon  Diablo  and  next  day  I'm 
medicine  man  for  some  poor  devil  that  has  tumbled 
over  the  twisted  falls  at  Neota.  I  teach  school 
while  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Masters  are  gone  right  now  over 
to  Tuba  at  the  convention.  And  when  there  isn't 
anything  else  to  do,  I  help  Miss  Gray  rescue  people 
from  that  old  mud  hole.  Being  a  missionary  is  no 
end  of  fun.  It's  a  wonder  to  me  how  most  people 
get  any  fun  out  of  life  unless  they  are  missionaries." 

"  And  the  elderly  woman  who  wears  glasses  is  your 
sister.  She  has  been  so  kind  to  me.  I  can  never  re- 
pay her." 

"  Don't  try.  Yes,  Hannah  and  I  have  been  here 
at  Tolchaco  a  long  time.  We  have  had  the  fun  of 
our  lives  here.  She  does  about  everything  in  the 
house  from  washing  the  dishes  to  converting  the 


220  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

heathen.  She  works  for  nothing  and  throws  in  her 
time." 

"  And — and  Miss  Gray?  " 

"  I  thought  maybe  you  might  enquire  about  her, 
after  awhile.  Well,  Miss  Gray  is  one  of  the  salt 
of  the  earth.  She's  a  whole  salt  mine.  She's  not 
been  here  long,  but  she's  got  'em  all  going, — Indians, 
cowboys,  traders,  gamblers,  missionaries,  teamsters, 
everybody.  Everybody  is  in  love  with  her.  I've 
asked  her  to  marry  me  several  times,  that  is,  I've 
only  asked  her  to  marry  me  once,  several  times,  and 
I  get  the  same  answer  every  time.  She's  a  gradu- 
ate of  Mt.  Holyoke  and  used  to  be  physical  director 
of  the  girls'  school  at  Peekskill.  That's  where  she 
learned  to  swim  and  rescue  people.  She  knows  sev- 
eral languages  and  can  talk  Navajo  better  than 
Peshlekietsetti.  And  she  is  the  friend  of  every  In- 
dian, Navajo  or  Hopi,  between  Sunshine  and  Castle 
Butte.  And  she  is  not  proud  a  little  bit.  And 
cheerful?  Well,  she  is  just  as  cheerful  every  time 
she  says  no  to  me  as  if  it  was  the  first  time.  And 
she  can  sing — you've  heard  her  Sunday  nights.  She 
can  sing  a  rattlesnake  out  of  its  skin.  Well,  there 
is  a  lot  more,  but  I  consider  that  much  a  pretty  good 
introduction.  If  I  had  one  like  it,  I'd  feel  as  if  the 
press  notices  had  the  performance  distanced  a 
mile." 

Bauer  stared  at  Clifford,  hardly  knowing  how  to 
take  all  he  said.  The  German  mind  was  not  ac- 
climated to  this  special  kind  of  humour.  But  Clif- 
ford was  so  absolutely  frank,  and  happy,  so  free 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  221 

from  any  hint  of  heartbreak  or  trouble,  that  the 
more  Bauer  listened  to  him  the  more  he  liked  him 
and  the  more  fascinated  he  became  with  his  peculiar 
surroundings.  He  had  never  known  any  real  Chris- 
tian people  except  the  Douglas  family,  and  the  spec- 
tacle of  the  genuine  self  sacrifice,  the  bearing  of  daily 
discomfort  and  pain  and  wrong,  with  such  cheerful- 
ness and  even  hilarity,  moved  him  with  a  feeling  of 
astonishment. 

Clifford's  description  of  Miss  Gray  filled  Bauer 
with  wonder  that  a  young  woman  of  such  charac- 
ter and  attainments  was  willing  to  go  to  such  a  place 
and  give  her  life  to  the  seemingly  impossible  task  of 
Christianising  a  lot  of  dirty,  superstitious,  lazy  In- 
dians. That  was  his  definition  of  her  task  and  of 
the  people  whom  she  had  come  to  serve.  But  he  had 
not  yet  learned  even  the  first  short  lesson  of  the  at- 
tractiveness of  the  missionary  call.  And  he  had  not 
even  a  glimmer  of  the  great  fact  that  the  history  of 
missions  in  every  age  reveals  the  beautiful  fact  that 
some  of  earth's  choicest  spirits  have  considered  mis- 
sionary work  as  the  most  honourable  and  honouring 
work  in  the  world,  and  that  no  grace  or  strength  of 
mind  or  body  is  too  great  to  pour  it  all  out  un- 
stintedly on  just  such  dirty,  unattractive  beings  as 
Indians.  Bauer  was  destined  to  begin  by  pitying 
a  mistake  which  such  a  young  woman  as  Miss  Gray 
was  making,  and  end  by  envying  her  the  place  which 
she  had  made  for  herself  in  the  hearts  of  these  neg- 
lected people. 

He  was  silent  during  a  period  while  Clifford  was 


222  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

busy  with  some  part  of  his  harness  demanding  his 
attention,  then  Clifford  said,  after  whistling  a  bar 
of  "  Anywhere  with  Jesus  I  can  safely  go  " : 

"  Any  more  of  our  folks  you  want  ante  mortem 
epitaphs  of  ?  " 

"  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Masters.  Of  course  I've  not  seen 
them.  I've  heard  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Douglas  speak  of 
them.  It  was  through  Mr.  Douglas,  you  know,  that 
I  came  out  here." 

"  Yes,  the  Douglases  are  good  friends  of  the  mis- 
sion. Mr.  Douglas  sends  us  two  hundred  dollars  a 
year  and  sometimes  as  high  as  four  hundred  and 
twenty.  Wish  he'd  come  out  here  and  bring  his 
family.  Hasn't  he  got  a  daughter  by  the  name  of 
Helen?" 

"  Yes,"  said  Bauer.  And  try  as  hard  as  he  would 
he  could  not  conceal  his  embarrassment. 

"  Do  you  know  her  ?     Is  she  a  nice  girl  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Bauer,  again  blushing  deeply.  And 
then  he  hastened  to  say,  quickly  for  him : 

*  You  were  going  to  tell  me  about  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Masters  ?  " 

"  Oh,  was  I?  Well,  they're  the  salt  of  the  earth, 
too.  They  don't  count  any  cost  and  the  harder  the 
work,  the  better  it  seems  to  suit.  Mr.  Masters  can 
live  on  eighteen  dollars  a  month  and  board  himself. 
There  isn't  anything  he  can't  do,  from  making  a 
windmill  out  of  a  bushel  of  old  tin  cans  to  preaching 
seven  times  on  Sunday.  And  Mrs.  Masters  is  a 
prize  winner  for  making  trouble  feel  ashamed  of  it- 
self. She  never  complains  about  anything.  One 


THE    HIGH    CALLING 

week  last  summer  we  had  eight  days  of  continuous 
wind.  You  never  saw  a  desert  wind,  did  you?  Or 
taste  one?  Well,  you  have  one  of  the  times  of  your 
life  coming  to  you.  The  sand  cavorts  around  like 
spring  lamb  and  peas.  You  can't  shut  it  out  of  a 
hardboiled  egg.  It  drifts  into  the  house  and  covers 
the  dishes  and  the  beds  and  the  books  and  the  chairs 
and  the  floors  and  does  the  work  of  blotting  paper 
while  you're  writing  letters  to  the  Agricultural  De- 
partment in  Washington  asking  them  to  irrigate  the 
Little  Colorado  so  we  can  raise  garden  truck  in  the 
channel  between  the  rainy  seasons.  At  the  dinner 
table  the  custard  pie  looks  as  if  it  was  dusted  with 
pulverised  sugar  and  you  eat  so  much  sand  that  you 
begin  to  feel  the  need  of  a  gizzard  like  a  hen.  It 
fills  your  pockets,  and  at  night  you  can  shake  a  pint 
out  of  each  ear,  if  your  ears  are  big  enough.  It 
drifts  up  on  the  porch  like  snow  and  sifts  through 
a  pane  of  glass  like  a  sieve. 

"  Well,  all  through  that  eight-day  week,  Mrs. 
Masters  was  so  cheerful  it  was  actually  depressing. 
She  couldn't  have  looked  cheerfuller  if  she  had  been 
going  over  to  Flagstaff  to  sit  for  her  photograph 
on  her  birthday.  The  rest  of  us  just  groaned  and 
bore  it.  We  lost  our  temper  with  one  another  and 
never  found  it  again  till  the  wind  quit.  We  were 
ornery  and  fractious.  We  just  couldn't  help  it. 
But  Mrs.  Masters  went  around  the  house  nursing 
the  baby  and  a  toothache  and  singing  so  loud  you 
could  hear  her  way  out  to  the  graveyard : 


THE    HIGH    CALLING 

'  The  sands  of  Time  are  sinking, 
The  dawn  of  heaven  breaks, 
The  summer  morn  I've  sighed  for, 
The  fair  sweet  morn  awakes.' 


My  !  I  used  to  think  to  myself  if  the  man  that  wrote 
that  hymn  knew  how  the  sands  of  Tolchaco  were 
sinking  into  our  hair  and  spirits,  he'd  a  written  an- 
other verse,  to  cheer  us  on  our  sandy  way.  But  any 
woman  that  can  keep  up  her  spirits  during  a  desert 
sand  storm  is  more  than  a  half  sister  to  a  cherubim. 
I  don't  want  to  know  anyone  better  than  that.  It 
would  scare  me  to  be  in  the  same  room  alone  with 
him." 

"  I'm  sure  I  shall  like  them  both,"  said  Bauer. 
"  It  seems  to  me  that  all  the  people  here  at  this  mis- 
sion are  pretty  near  the  angels." 

"  Well,  some  of  us  are  a  little  lower,  I  guess.  But 
we  do  have  some  jolly  times  and  no  mistake.  Bar- 
ring the  heat  and  the  sand  and  the  floods  and  the 
drinking  water  and  the  wind  and  the  canned  goods 
and  the  absence  of  pasture  and  the  high  price  of  hay 
and  the  lack  of  shade  and  a  few  other  little  things, 
Tolchaco  is  a  great  resort  all  the  year  around  for 
people  that  aren't  too  particular  about  trifles. 

"  But  you've  pumped  me  dry  about  us  ;  mind  if  I 
ask  a  few  questions  about  you  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  Bauer  with  a  smile.  "  There  isn't 
much  for  me  to  tell." 

"  I  take  it  you're  a  German  to  start  with?  "  said 
Clifford  gravely,  but  he  managed  in  some  remark- 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  225 

able  manner  to  work  and  whistle  at  the  same  time  he 
spoke. 

"  Yes." 

*  You  won't  have  much  use  for  the  language  out 
here,  except  Miss  Gray  uses  it  if  she  wants  to.  She's 
reading  a  book  right  now  in  German,  written  by  a 
Mr.  Goethe.  If  I  had  a  name  like  that,  I'd  have  it 
broken  up  and  set  again  in  a  new  frame.  Mr.  Doug- 
las in  his  letter  about  you  said  you  were  an  inventor 
by  trade.  But  he  didn't  go  into  particulars.  What 
can  you  invent  ?  " 

Bauer  started  to  tell  Clifford  about  his  incubator. 
Clifford  grew  so  interested  that  he  dropped  his  work 
and  came  over  on  the  log  by  Bauer  to  listen.  He 
was  just  eagerly  beginning  to  ask  a  number  of  ques- 
tions when  he  looked  up  and  exclaimed, 

"  There's  that  old  white  face  broke  his  hobbles 
again  and  he's  heading  for  the  corn  patch.  I'll 
have  to  head  him  off." 

He  started  towards  the  unshackled  offender,  and 
Bauer  was  amused  to  see  the  animal,  the  moment  it 
caught  sight  of  its  keeper  kick  up  its  heels  and  make 
a  dash  for  the  'dobe  flats  into  which  it  madly  gal- 
loped, Clifford  disappearing  in  its  wake,  enveloped 
in  a  cloud  of  dust. 

The  afternoon  sun  was  pleasantly  flecked  as  it 
sifted  down  through  the  cottonwoods  on  Bauer,  and 
he  sat  there  going  over  his  talk  with  Clifford  and 
smiling  once  in  awhile  in  his  own  fashion  as  he  re- 
called a  sentence  here  and  there.  It  was  pleasant 
to  be  with  friends,  to  feel  the  strength  coming  back, 


226  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

to  note  the  response  of  his  lungs  to  the  full  drawn 
breath.  He  had  not  had  a  hemorrhage  since  reach- 
ing Tolchaco.  And  in  spite  of  his  submersion  in 
the  river  he  had  suffered  almost  no  pain.  He  began 
to  construct  some  kind  of  a  future,  and  wonder  what 
he  could  do  while  at  the  misison  to  help  in  any  way. 
He  was  paying  for  his  board,  and  by  the  plan  ar- 
ranged between  Douglas  and  Masters  they  were  to 
provide  medical  help  or  nursing  if  necessary.  But 
Bauer  had  surprised  everyone  by  his  wonderful  re- 
sponse to  nature's  help  and  it  looked  now  very  much 
as  if  in  less  than  six  months  he  would  be  on  the  road 
to  full  recovery.  It  was  now  the  last  of  June  and 
the  desert  heat  was  pulsing  over  all  the  strange  land, 
but  Bauer  was  drinking  in  health  and  beginning  to 
yield  to  the  glamour  of  the  place. 

"  Guide  me,  Oh,  Thou  Great  Jehovah,  Pilgrim 
through  this  desert  land  " — a  voice  soared  up  close 
by,  ringing  down  past  Bauer,  and  he  looked  up 
towards  the  Mission. 

Down  the  slight  elevation  came  a  young  woman 
with  a  group  of  children  following.  As  they  came 
down  near  where  he  sat,  Bauer  saw  it  was  Miss  Gray 
and  half  a  dozen  of  her  charges  who  had  been  left 
in  her  care  while  Miss  Clifford  and  one  of  the  house- 
maids had  driven  over  to  the  Canon  to  see  a  sick 
woman. 

She  came  and  sat  down  on  the  sand  at  the  side  of 
the  old  log  and  said  in  a  perfectly  simple  and  friendly 
manner,  free  from  all  hint  of  embarrassment: 

"  I  saw  you  were  all  alone  here,  Mr.  Bauer,  and 


THE    HIGH   CALLING 

came  down  to  see  if  there  was  anything  you  needed. 
If  you  want  to  be  alone,  I'll  go  away." 

"  Why,  no,  I  don't  need  anything,  and  I  don't 
want  you  to  go  away,  at  least  not  until  I  have  tried 
to  tell  you  what  is  not  easy  to  say,  what  a  wonderful 
thing  that  you — that  you  actually  saved  my  life 
from  that  treacherous  stream !  " 

"  Oh,  I  was  only  too  glad  to  do  it,  it  wasn't  any 
trouble  at  all,  don't  think  of  such  a  thing,"  the 
young  woman  tried  to  speak  lightly,  thinking  she 
detected  a  note  of  unnecessary  shyness  in  the  Ger- 
man youth. 

To  her  surprise  Bauer  burst  out  laughing. 

"I  beg  pardon,  Miss  Gray,  but  that  is  just  what 
Mr.  Clifford  said  you  would  say  if  I  tried  to  thank 
you,  and  I  couldn't  help  laughing,  it  sounded  so 
strange." 

"  What  else  did  Mr.  Clifford  say?  "  asked  the  life- 
saver,  looking  up  quickly  at  Bauer. 

Bauer  was  so  taken  back  he  couldn't  reply.  Miss 
Gray  laughed,  the  most  jolly,  contagious  laugh 
Bauer  had  ever  heard. 

"  Never  mind.  But  isn't  Mr.  Clifford  a  charac- 
ter? He's  one  of  the  rarest  fellows  you  ever  saw. 
The  most  self  sacrificing  and  self  forgetful  man  I 
ever  knew.  And  the  bravest.  I  wish  you  could 
have  seen  him  in  that  tangle  with  Tracker  and  the 
horses.  I  never  expected  he  would  get  out  alive. 
Did  he  tell  you  about  it?  " 

"  He  told  me  about  you.     How  you " 

"  Had  to  strike  you  in  the  face?    It  seems  dread- 


228  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

ful,  doesn't  it?  But  I  had  to  or  you  would  have 
drowned  both  of  us.  You'll  forgive  that,  won't 
you?" 

"  Forgive?  "  murmured  Bauer. 

"  Because  you  see  the  Little  Colorado  is  one  of 
the  most  treacherous  streams  in  the  world.  It's  full 
of  sink  holes  and  they  make  eddies  and  whirlpools 
and  when  it's  in  flood  as  that  day,  it's  carrying  down 
all  sorts  of  drift  stuff  and  you  are  liable  to  get  hit 
and  pulled  down.  Well,  Mr.  Clifford  went  clear 
under  twice,  carried  down  by  getting  caught  be- 
tween the  fork  branch  of  an  old  water  log.  All  the 
time  he  was  pulling  at  Tracker  and  cutting  away 
with  his  knife  at  the  harness.  If  he  hadn't  cut  the 
harness  just  in  time,  I  couldn't  have  got  you  out,  for 
you  were  caught  around  the  feet  with  the  lines.  I 
suppose  you  got  tangled  in  them  when  you  fell  over. 
We  had  a  serious  time  getting  Mr.  Clifford  back  to 
consciousness.  So  if  you  are  going  to  thank  anyone 
it  is  Mr.  Clifford  who  deserves  most  of  it.  I  simply 
towed  you  to  the  bank  after  he  had  cut  you  loose." 

"  Then  I  owe  my  life  to  both  of  you.  That  makes 
you  doubly  my  friends.  You  do  not  know  how 
much  it  means  to  me." 

"  Consider  everything  said,"  interrupted  Miss 
Gray  with  a  cheery  tone,  "  and  of  course  you  will 
excuse  me  for  pulling  your  hair?  " 

"  Pulling  my  hair,"  murmured  Bauer. 

"  It  couldn't  be  helped.  Say  no  more.  Oh,  I  want 
to  tell  you  how  lucky  you  are  a  German.  I  run 
across  some  hard  places  in  Goethe's  Hermann  und 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  229 

Dorothea.  Will  you  help  me  out  with  the  transla- 
tion? " 

"  Indeed  I  will,  Miss  Gray." 

"  You  will  have  to  do  it  in  payment  for  saving 
you,"  she  said  lightly.  And  then  with  a  change  of 
manner — "  How  little  we  know  the  real  value  of  life. 
Of  any  life.  Now,  that  little  girl  Ansa.  Come, 
Ansa,  come  here  a  minute." 

Ansa,  a  six  year  old,  came  at  once  and  stood  by 
Miss  Gray,  looking  up  at  her  out  of  the  blackest 
eyes.  The  American  turned  the  little  Indian  face 
towards  Bauer.  "  Look !  "  she  said  passionately. 
"  Look  at  one  of  my  beloved  ones !  Is  she  not  en- 
titled to  a  full  womanhood  redeemed  and  developed 
by  Christ?  Has  any  living  being  a  right  to  deny 
her  that  boon?  Can  America  call  itself  Christian 
and  go  on  refusing  the  water  of  life  to  these  lost 
lambs  of  the  desert?  " 

She  seemed  to  forget  Bauer's  presence  as  she 
swept  her  arms  about  the  child  and  enveloped  it  in 
a  comprehensive  enfolding  of  salvation  as  if  by  that 
act  she  would  compel  life  abundantly  for  a  soul  that 
otherwise  would  never  know  it.  Bauer  had  never 
seen  anything  like  it  and  he  was  almost  bewildered 
by  it.  He  could  not  accustom  himself  to  the  sight 
of  this  talented,  educated,  cultured  young  woman 
giving  her  life  to  the  hard,  uncouth,  repulsive  sur- 
roundings. There  were  whole  volumes  of  life  that 
Felix  Bauer  had  never  opened,  to  say  nothing  of 
whole  volumes  he  had  never  known  to  be  in  existence. 

After    a    short    silence,   Miss    Gray    said    softly, 


230  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

"  You  know  the  Douglas  family  ?  They  are  great 
friends  of  us  here  at  the  mission.  We  want  them 
to  come  out  here  some  time.  Do  you  know  Helen 
Douglas?  She  and  I  were  together  one  year  at 
Manitou.  She  is  a  lovely  girl." 

"  Yes,"  said  Bauer.  At  that  moment  a  call  came 
from  the  mission  house  for  Miss  Gray  and  she  rose 
to  go. 

"  Don't  forget  the  Goethe  when  you're  strong 
enough.  Isn't  it  fine  you're  getting  well  so  fast?" 

She  nodded  a  good-bye  to  him  and  left  him  to 
dwell  over  their  little  talk,  but  most  of  all  he  re- 
curred again  and  again  to  the  sight  of  her  with  her 
arms  about  the  child,  kneeling  on  the  sand  and  look- 
ing off  to  the  east,  to  that  far  east  that  might,  if  it 
would,  with  its  opulence,  save  life,  instead  of  waste  it. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Masters  came  back  from  Tuba  two 
days  after  and  Bauer  found  them  all  that  Clifford 
had  said.  Never  in  all  his  life  had  the  lonely  student 
been  so  petted  and  surrounded  by  friendship.  He 
grew  strong  with  amazing  rapidity.  Clifford  joked 
him  about  his  appetite  and  Masters  threatened  to 

raise  his  board  bill. 

• 

One  evening  as  Clifford  and  Peshlekietsetti  were 
sitting  by  the  hogon  and  Bauer  was  between  them, 
Masters  came  down  from  the  Mission  waving  a  let- 
ter. 

"Listen  to  this!  Douglas  and  his  wife,  daugh- 
ter and  oldest  son  are  coming  to  pay  us  a  visit  first 
of  August.  Isn't  that  jolly!  We'll  plan  a  trip 
to  Oraibi.  It's  their  turn  for  the  snake  dance.  I 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  281 

haven't  seen  Douglas  since  we  graduated  from  Phil- 
lips Andover.  It's  fine !  " 

Bauer  was  excited  over  the  prospect. 

"When  will  they  be  here?" 

"  First  of  August.  In  about  three  weeks  now. 
We'll  all  go  together.  You'll  be  strong  enough  by 
that  time.  Mrs.  Masters  needs  a  little  vacation. 
We'll  leave  someone  in  charge  here  and  go  and  play 
a  little." 

Masters  was  as  pleased  as  a  child.  Later  on, 
after  the  papers  had  come  in  from  Flagstaff,  he 
announced  that  there  were  two  parties  from  New 
York  and  one  from  Pittsburg,  going  to  cross  up  to 
Oraibi  to  see  the  snake  dance  from  Canon  Diablo. 
"  The  Van  Shaws  are  listed.  You  remember,  Miss 
Gray.  Old  friends  of  yours,  aren't  they  ?  " 

Miss  Gray  looked  annoyed.  The  first  time  Bauer 
had  ever  seen  such  a  look  on  her  face.  She  an- 
swered, however,  cheerfully  enough,  "  The  Van  Shaws 
are  relatives  of  mother's."  Masters  did  not  ask 
anything  more  and  Bauer  did  not  dwell  on  the  in- 
cident. That  night  he  lay  watching  the  stars 
through  the  hogon  door.  Life  was  meaning  so  much 
to  him  now.  But  could  he  bear  to  see  too  much  of 
Helen  Douglas  in  this  desert  land?  He  was  troubled 
over  the  question  and  its  unsettled  answer. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

IT  was  an  hour  before  sunrise  at  Tolchaco  and 
Bauer  had  awakened  from  a  restful  sleep  and 
from  the  place  where  he  lay  in  the  Council  Hogon 
he  noted  with  pure  enjoyment  the  splendid  colour 
of  the  sky  framed  in  the  opening,  the  exquisite  blend- 
ing from  the  pearly  grey  into  the  unpaintable,  soft 
moving  colours  that  he  had  looked  at  with  growing 
awe  during  many  wonderful  mornings  in  July.  He 
could  not  remove  the  impression  that  it  was  God's 
hand  that  moved  over  the  sky,  painting  with  an  art 
that  man's  cheap  imitation  could  never  approach 
even  in  the  faintest  degree. 

It  was  the  morning  of  the  day  they  were  all  to 
start  for  Oraibi  to  see  the  snake  dance  which  was  to 
be  given  in  three  or  four  days  according  to  an- 
nouncements sent  out  by  the  runners.  The  Doug- 
lases had  come  as  they  had  planned  and  had  been 
visiting  at  the  mission  now  for  two  weeks.  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Douglas  were  delighted  with  what  they  saw 
and  heard  of  the  mission  work.  Walter  had  made  a 
horseback  trip  to  the  Grand  Canon  through  the  sol- 
emn dry  pine  forest  from  Flagstaff  and  had  returned 
to  Tolchaco  in  time  to  join  the  party  for  Oraibi. 
Helen  had  been  received  at  once  as  a  favourite  by 
all  the  mission  people,  had  renewed  her  acquaintance 

232 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  23S 

with  Miss  Gray,  and  had  shown  herself  friendly,  yet 
not  too  friendly,  with  Bauer,  who  had  steadily  gained 
in  strength  and  was  looking  forward  with  great  an- 
ticipation, as  they  all  were,  to  the  Oraibi  trip. 

He  lay  there  contentedly  musing  in  his  deliberate 
way,  for  he  mused  as  slowly  as  he  spoke,  when  he 
was  roused  by  a  voice  that  came  with  clear  accents 
across  the  'dobe  flats.  He  had  heard  it  often  in  the 
early  morning,  but  the  sound  of  it  never  ceased  to 
create  in  him  a  wondering  awe  and  more  or  less  be- 
wilderment to  reconcile  his  first  thought  of  Elijah 
Clifford  with  other  impressions  that  came  on  later. 
For  it  was  Clifford's  voice  quietly  speaking,  yet  in 
such  distinct  fashion  that,  although  he  was  kneeling 
out  on  the  edge  of  the  'dobe  flats,  what  he  said  was 
plainly  heard  by  Bauer  where  he  lay  and  unless  he 
had  covered  his  ears  he  could  not  avoid  catching  the 
words. 

"  O  Thou  Dayspring  from  on  high,  what  a  glori- 
ous world  we  live  in!  Forgive  us  that  we  shut  our 
eyes  to  its  beauty  and  close  our  ears  to  its  music. 
I  thank  you,  God,  for  a  good  night's  sleep  and  a 
good  morning's  wakening.  Help  all  of  us  to  make 
it  a  good  day  for  one  another.  We  think  so  much 
of  ourselves,  of  our  body's  comfort,  and  what  we 
shall  eat  and  drink  and  be  clothed  withal  that  some- 
times a  whole  day  has  gone  and  we  no  nearer  the 
Kingdom.  We've  lost  our  way  in  the  desert  and  the 
water  all  gone.  We  are  going  to  start  out  to-day 
to  see  these  poor  creatures  of  yours  go  through  their 
ancient  prayer  for  rain.  Forgive  them,  good  God. 


234  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

How  should  they  know  any  better.  No  one  ever 
told  them  of  a  better  way.  And  there's  old  Tou- 
chiniteel,  poor  old  savage.  I  would  give  anything, 
most  anything,  to  see  him  brought  into  the  fold.  Is 
he  too  old  to  be  saved,  Lord  Jesus?  Can't  you  save 
him?  It's  not  easy,  I  know,  but  we  aren't  asking 
you  to  do  easy  things  out  here.  Most  of  them  are 
hard,  but  don't  you  like  to  do  hard  things?  Isn't 
that  what  being  God  means?  And  Peshlekietsetti 
— he's  another,  I  want  to  see  him  saved.  And  old 
Begwoettin.  You  know  how  the  old  man  never  told 
a  lie  in  his  life.  And  he  loves  his  grandchildren. 
Why,  he  would  die  in  a  minute  for  Ansa  and  Riba. 
He  can't  be  so  very  bad.  Somehow  I  can't  think 
of  his  being  lost.  He  isn't  half  so  bad  as  Jake  Ram- 
beau,  the  trader.  And  Jake's  had  a  high  school 
education  and  calls  himself  civilised. 

"  We  are  all  in  need  of  the  Spirit's  presence  to- 
day. I  want  more  of  the  presence.  My  heart  longs 
to  walk  with  the  Master  to-day.  If  the  Master  will 
be  gentle  with  me  as  he  was  with  Peter  two  or  three 
times  when  he  didn't  deserve  it,  I  would  be  glad.  O 
Master,  tell  me  your  will.  I  need  you  so  much,  so 
much " 

And  then  the  sound  of  the  voice  trailed  off  into 
a  murmur  indistinguishable  to  Bauer  from  where 
he  lay.  But  he  knew  that  Elijah  Clifford  had 
thrown  himself  full  length  on  the  ground  and  was 
pleading  in  his  own  way  for  the  Divine  presence,  for 
victory  over  himself  and  triumph  for  the  Kingdom 
in  that  desert,  for  once  in  the  dawn  when  he  had 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  235 

heard  his  voice,  Bauer  had  poked  a  hole  through  the 
dirt  over  the  wall  of  the  hogon  and  for  one  moment, 
during  which  he  felt  almost  ashamed  for  looking,  he 
had  seen  Cifford  prostrate  himself  thus  and  lie  there 
outstretched  for  how  long,  he  did  not  know.  It 
did  not  seem  right  to  him  to  look  for  more  than 
a  minute. 

After  a  silence  of  about  half  an  hour,  during 
which  Bauer  had  risen,  Clifford  appeared  in  the  door- 
way of  the  hogon  with  his  usual  cheerful  "  Good- 
morning;  Sehr  gut?  " 

"  Ja,  sehr  gut,"  replied  Bauer.  "  When  do  we 
start?" 

"  Right  after  breakfast." 

"  How  long  will  it  take  us  to  make  the  trip  to 
Oraibi?  " 

"  Oh,  it  depends  on  how  often  we  lose  the  way. 
May  take  two  days,  may  take  three." 

"  Have  you  been  there  before?  " 

"  Seen  the  snake  dance  five  times." 

"  Is  it  as  wonderful  as  they  say?  " 

"Is  it?  I  am  just  as  much  interested  in  it  now 
as  I  was  the  first  time.  But  the  poor  devils !  Half 
of  'em  don't  know  what  their  rigamarole  means. 
And  Mr.  Masters  thinks  the  government  ought  to 
put  an  end  to  it.  Last  time  there  were  over  a  hun- 
dred tourists  came  up  from  all  over  the  country  and 
turned  Oraibi  into  a  sort  of  bargain  day.  The 
dance  confirms  'em  in  their  superstitions.  But  no 
mistake  it's  a  wonderful  sight  to  be  going  on  in  the 
U.  S." 


236  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

"  Mr.  Masters  said  several  parties  were  go- 
ing to  come  this  year  from  Pittsburg  and  New 
York." 

"  Yes.  The  Van  Shaws  are  among  them.  I  under- 
stood Miss  Douglas  to  tell  Miss  Gray  that  one  of 
these  Van  Shaws  was  in  the  same  school  with  her 
brother  and  you.  Do  you  know  him?  " 

"  Yes — I  know  who  he  is,"  said  Bauer,  slower  than 
usual.  He  could  not  forget  the  incident  that  oc- 
curred in  Walter's  room  when  Van  Shaw  had  started 
to  relate  an  objectionable  story  and  Walter  had 
prevented  him  from  telling  it.  Van  Shaw's  general 
reputation  for  fast  and  questionable  habits  corres- 
ponded with  this  incident  and  Bauer  felt  annoyed  at 
the  possibility  of  a  chance  meeting  with  his  party. 

But  in  the  bustle  of  preparation  for  the  journey, 
everything  else  was  soon  forgotten  except  the  im- 
mediate interest.  Bauer  was  not  expected  to  do 
anything  except  get  his  own  few  travelling  necessi- 
ties together.  But  he  quietly  helped  Mrs.  Masters 
in  a  number  of  ways  and  she  afterwards  told  Clifford 
that  the  laconic  German  student  was  the  most  re- 
markable young  man  she  ever  knew  to  anticipate  a 
want  and  do  a  thing  right  the  first  time. 

"  Just  the  opposite  of  me,"  said  Clifford.  "  I 
have  to  do  a  thing  twice  anyway  to  make  sure,  like 
the  doctor  in  our  old  town  in  Vermont,  who  used  to 
say  that  if  he  didn't  kill  with  the  first  operation  he 
was  dead  sure  to  cure  with  the  next." 

When  the  chuck  wagons  were  all  ready  Bauer 
found  to  his  pleasure  that  he  was  assigned  to  the 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  237 

light  platform  spring  wagon  in  which  Esther  and 
Helen,  together  with  Clifford  and  Mrs.  Masters, 
were  going.  Mr.  Masters,  Miss  Gray,  Walter  and 
Miss  Clifford  were  assigned  to  one  of  the  chuck 
wagons  and  Peshlekietsetti  with  two  of  the  older 
pupils  in  the  school  and  one  of  the  younger  Indians 
had  charge  of  a  third  wagon  containing  the  tents 
and  the  water. 

The  party  was  on  the  way  shortly  after  sunrise 
and  reached  the  place  of  the  ford  in  about  an  hour. 
The  river  was  very  low  and  as  the  wagons  went  over 
on  the  rock  ledge,  only  a  few  inches  of  water  were 
trickling  through  the  wheels. 

"  You  wouldn't  believe,  would  you,  Miss  Douglas, 
that  Mr.  Bauer  and  I  had  a  good  swim  right  about 
here  a  few  weeks  ago  ?  " 

"  Oh,  tell  me  about  that,"  cried  Helen,  who  with 
all  the  rest  of  the  visitors  had  of  course  heard  of 
Bauer's  rescue,  and  in  her  heart  was  envious  of  Miss 
Gray  for  her  physical  prowess.  But  she  had  never 
been  able  to  prevail  on  her  to  give  any  but  the  most 
unsatisfactory  account  of  the  rescue. 

So  Clifford  launched  into  a  glowing  account  of 
the  affair,  obliterating  himself  entirely  and  making 
it  seem  that  Miss  Gray  was  the  only  person  present, 
so  that  Bauer  had  to  give  Helen  the  full  account  as 
near  as  he  could  of  Clifford's  part  in  the  rescue. 

"  It's  a  wonderful  land !  I  wish  such  things  would 
happen  in  Milton !  And,  oh,  look  at  those  colours ! 
Was  anything  ever  like  them ! "  Helen  exclaimed  as 
the  wagons  came  up  out  of  the  river  bed  and  in  full 


238  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

view  of  the  painted  desert  as  it  stretched  out  in  its 
weird,  fascinating  beauty.  "  Oh,  I  just  can't  con- 
tain it  all !  " 

"  You  remind  me,"  said  Clifford  who  was  driving, 
and  now  gave  the  horses  a  free  rein  on  a  hard  'dobe 
stretch,  "  of  a  young  lady  who  was  writing  letters 
home  from  her  first  trip  abroad  for  the  use  of  the 
county  paper.  She  said,  when  she  was  in  Venice, 
*  Last  night  I  lay  in  a  gondola  in  the  Grand  Canal, 
drinking  it  all  in,  and  life  never  seemed  so  full  be- 
fore.' "  Clifford  winked  at  Bauer  who  was  on  the 
front  seat  with  him,  and  Helen,  who  was  not  yet  used 
to  Elijah  Clifford's  ways,  at  first  turned  red 
and  looked  vexed,  but  afterwards  laughed  with  the 
rest. 

"  Well,  if  your  young  lady  was  here  she  would 
have  to  say  the  same  thing  about  all  this.  I  never 
had  any  thought  that  a  desert  was  like  this.  I  sup- 
posed it  was  just  nothing  but  sand  spread  out  on  a 
flat  surface.  But  look  at  those  flowers!  Did  you 
ever  see  anything  more  delicate  for  colour  and 
form?" 

"  Most  people  think  that  way  about  the  desert," 
said  Clifford.  "  There  are  more  than  sixty  distinct 
varieties  of  vegetation  this  side  of  the  river  between 
here  and  Red  Stone  Tank.  Mr.  Bauer  can  tell  you 
the  names  of  some  of  'em.  He  has  begun  to  make  a 
collection." 

Bauer  modestly  replied  in  answer  to  a  question 
from  Helen  that  he  had  classified  only  a  few  dis- 
tinct species  that  he  had  found  in  his  short  strolls 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  239 

from  the  Mission.  He  had  the  book  with  his  things 
at  Tolchaco  and  would  show  it  to  her  when  they 
came  back. 

"  I  didn't  know  you  cared  for  Botany,"  said 
Helen  a  little  flippantly.  "  I  supposed  you  were  all 
absorbed  in  your  inventions." 

Bauer's  face  changed  colour  slightly. 

"I  have  always  enjoyed  God's  earth,"  he  said. 
"  Anything  that  grows  is  always  more  wonderful 
than  anything  that  has  to  be  made." 

"  I  should  think  this  would  be  a  good  place  to 
try  your  incubator,  it's  so  hot,"  said  Helen,  feeling 
that  she  had  made  a  foolish  remark,  but  letting  it 
go  rather  than  try  to  apologise  to  Bauer  for  her 
poor  judgment  of  him. 

"  Oh,  say,  tell  us  about  that  incubator,"  said  Clif- 
ford. "  Must  be  a  lot  of  money  in  a  thing  like  that. 
I  believe  we  could  use  some  of  'em  out  here  to  good 
advantage  and  make  something  for  the  Mission. 
There's  a  great  demand  for  broilers  at  Flagstaff,  and 
the  Harvey  eating  houses  would  give  us  big  money 
for  any  quantity  of  either  eggs  or  young  chickens. 
If  we  could  only  educate  'em  to  live  on  sand  and 
cactus.  Trouble  is,  feed  is  so  high  and  we're  so  used 
to  eating  up  everything,  that  there  ain't  anything 
left  over  from  meals,  to  give  to  chickens.  I  suppose 
there  ain't  any  way  to  fatten  chickens  without  feed- 
ing 'em." 

When  Clifford  spoke  of  Bauer's  invention  as  a 
money  maker,  Helen  was  reminded  again  of  what 
she  had  almost  forgotten,  that  Bauer  had  lost  the 


240  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

largest  part  of  his  profits  from  the  sale  of  the  patent 
rights. 

Walter  had  written  home  about  Bauer's  father  re- 
turning a  part  of  what  he  had  stolen,  and  of  Bauer's 
quiet  acceptance  of  the  event.  Helen,  as  she  caught 
the  look  on  his  face  whenever  he  partly  turned  about 
to  speak  to  those  on  the  seat  behind,  could  not  help 
feeling  a  real  interest  in  him — if  only  he  were  not 
so  plain  looking,  and  so  serious  and  above  all,  so 
poor,  and  so  destined  to  remain  poor.  No;  she 
shut  her  eyes,  opened  them  again,  looked  at  Bauer 
pensively,  shook  her  head  as  if  in  answer  to  a  ques- 
tion, and  then  with  a  feeling  of  determination  turned 
her  attention  to  the  remarkable  land  through  which 
the  party  was  travelling. 

The  sky  was  cloudless.  The  heat  was  dry  and 
penetrating,  and  as  the  forenoon  wore  away  every- 
one grew  thirsty.  The  cloth  covered  canteens  were 
called  for  often.  At  noon  the  wagons  drew  together 
and  camped  for  dinner.  Two  of  the  wagons  were 
driven  up  side  by  side  about  ten  feet  apart  and  the 
horses  unhitched  and  hobbled.  A  spare  canvas  was 
drawn  over  the  tops  of  the  two  wagons  to  make 
shade  for  the  dinner  party.  Clifford,  who  acted  as 
cook  on  camping  out  occasions,  dug  a  hole  in  the 
sand,  filled  it  with  dowegie  roots  and  started  his 
fire  and  in  what  seemed  an  incredibly  short  time  to 
the  visitors  from  Milton  a  hearty  meal  was  ready. 
The  Indians  and  their  helpers  squatted  around  on 
rugs  within  the  circle,  Mr.  Masters  asked  grace 
in  a  delightful  tone  of  genuine  thanksgiving  and 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  241 

addrd  a  few  words  in  Navaj  o  in  which  Peshlekietsetti 
and  the  young  Indians  joined. 

"  This  what  I  call  the  real  thing,"  said  Paul,  as  he 
helped  himself  to  his  fourth  sandwich  and  passed  his 
cup  for  the  third  time  for  coffee. 

"  Yes,  these  are  real  sandwiches  all  right,"  said 
Clifford  as  he  turned  over  some  pancakes  which  were 
cooking  on  a  flat  stone.  "  Anyone  else  want  a  hot 
one  made  by  the  slab  artist?  " 

Walter  expressed  a  desire  for  one  and  politely 
handed  it  over  to  Miss  Gray.  Clifford  looked  at 
him  a  moment  and  then  at  Miss  Gray,  who  was 
smiling  her  thanks. 

"How's  the  batter?"  he  said  to  Walter. 

"  Good,"  said  Walter  who  seemed  in  unusual 
spirits.  "  It's  equal  to  a  home  run  with  the  bases 
all  full." 

"  Do  you  think  it  needs  to  be  any  thicker?  " 

"  No.  It's  thick  enough,"  said  Walter  with  his 
eyes  on  Miss  Gray. 

"Yes,  what  did  I  tell  you,"  muttered  Clifford  to 
Bauer  when  an  hour  later  he  and  the  German 
student  were  alone  and  out  of  ear  shot  from  the  rest 
of  the  campers.  Bauer  had  offered  to  help  Clifford 
wash  the  dishes  at  a  water  hole  some  hundred  yards 
from  the  camp.  "What  did  I  tell  you?  It's  just 
as  I  said.  Miss  Gray  has  'em  all  going.  Cowboys, 
Indian  traders,  missionaries,  visitors,  everybody. 
Now  it's  your  friend  Douglas.  He's  a  goner  so 
soon.  You  watch  when  the  wagons  load  up  if  he 
don't  manage  to  sit  with  Miss  Gray.  He's  lost  and 


THE    HIGH    CALLING 

there's  no  use  sending  out  an  expedition  to  find  him. 
He  doesn't  want  to  be  found.  And  the  mystery  of 
it  is  Miss  Gray  never  tries.  She  just  simply  looks 
at  you  and  it's  all  over." 

Bauer  was  amused  and  perplexed  at  Clifford's  ab- 
solutely frank  confidence.  There  was  nothing  flip- 
pant about  it  either.  It  was  the  simple  expression 
of  a  nature  that  had  nothing  to  conceal.  There  was 
not  even  a  hint  of  gossip  about  it,  nor  of  ill  nature. 
In  a  land  where  there  were  no  newspapers,  tele- 
graphs, telephones,  railroads,  or  neighbours,  it 
seemed  like  the  expression  of  a  confidence  which  had 
in  it  neither  malice  nor  impertinent  coarseness. 
And  yet  Bauer  was  puzzled  to  know  what  Clifford's 
real  feeling  was  towards  Miss  Gray  even  after  Clif- 
ford's own  open  statement  made  to  him  that  day 
while  they  were  sitting  on  the  old  cottonwood  by  the 
river. 

When  the  party  started  on  again  after  a  two 
hours'  rest,  Clifford  nudged  Bauer  to  call  attention 
to  the  fact  that  Walter  and  Miss  Gray  were  in  the 
back  seat  of  the  chuck  wagon  in  front  of  them.  But 
he  never  mentioned  the  matter  again  during  the  day, 
and  until  they  reached  the  night  camping  place  he 
was  alive  with  stories  and  information  about  the 
desert,  the  Indians,  the  habits  of  the  horses,  the 
work  of  the  Mission  and  the  coming  snake 
dance. 

The  place  chosen  for  the  first  night's  camp  was 
the  Red  Stone  Tanks.  This  consisted  of  a  pool  of 
tepid  water  and  a  few  rocks,  from  the  crevices  of 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  243 

which  a  straggling  fringe  of  desert  cedars  was  trying 
to  grow. 

Camp  was  made  here  by  pitching  one  of  the  big 
tents  for  the  women.  A  big  fire  of  roots  was  started 
after  the  supper  had  been  eaten,  and  when  they  were 
all  seated  in  the  circle  about  the  fire,  Mr.  Masters 
began  a  story. 

Gradually  as  he  went  on  with  the  old,  old  story  of 
the  lost  sheep,  figures  stole  up  around  the  fire. 
Paul,  who  with  Esther  and  all  the  rest  was  simpty 
fascinated  with  the  entire  surroundings,  although 
he  did  not  understand  a  word  Masters  was  speaking, 
was  startled  as  he  looked  around  and  saw  a  dozen 
dark  faces  of  young  men  and  boys.  They  had  risen 
out  of  the  desert  barrenness  and  gloom,  the  sudden 
twilight,  and  silently  appeared.  When  the  camp 
was  chosen  there  was  not  a  hogon  or  a  living  crea- 
ture anywhere  in  sight.  But  all  of  these  quiet  visi- 
tors knew  that  the  mission  party  was  on  the  way  to 
Oraibi  and  some  of  them  had  been  riding  all  day  to 
meet  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Masters  at  this  point. 

When  the  story  was  finished,  Miss  Gray  started  a 
hymn,  "  The  Ninety  and  Nine."  She  sang  with  a 
low  soft  voice,  almost  talking  the  words,  but  old 
Peshlekietsetti  sitting  by  Mr.  Clifford  bent  over  his 
knees  gravely  watching  the  singer's  face  and  listen- 
ing intently  for  every  word,  and  when  she  was 
through,  he  asked  a  question  of  Mr.  Masters. 

"  The  old  man  wants  to  know,"  said  Masters  after 
one  or  two  more  questions  had  been  asked,  "  how  it 
happened  that  the  sheep  got  lost  and  if  it  was  its 


244  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

own  fault  or  the  fault  of  someone  who  should  have 
been  looking  after  it.  That  isn't  a  bad  question  to 
come  from  the  old  fellow.  His  theology  isn't  half 
so  much  at  fault  as  that  of  some  theological 
seminary  professors  I  know,  who  teach  that  sin  is 
nothing  but  a  disease  and  that  nobody  in  particular 
is  to  blame  for  it.  If  he  had  to  live  out  here  awhile 
instead  of  in  his  little  upholstered  study  at  the 
seminary,  he  would  change  his  definition." 

The  evening  was  spent  about  the  fire  with  songs 
and  conversation,  largely  between  Paul  and  Mr. 
Masters  concerning  the  Navajo  characteristics. 
The  last  thing  Bauer  could  remember  as  he  lay 
under  his  rug  looking  up  at  the  stars,  was  the  sight 
of  old  Peshlekietsetti  throwing  a  handful  of  dry 
roots  on  the  fire  as  he  sat  bowed  over  his  knees,  the 
fire  flame  gleaming  red  on  his  grave  and  dignified 
face. 

He  wakened  early,  as  he  had  of  late  been  doing, 
and  sat  up,  noting  the  sleeping  figures  in  a  circle 
about  the  ashes  of  the  fire,  and  as  his  look  travelled 
on  past  them  he  noted  out  by  the  edge  of  the  Black 
Gorge  through  which  they  were  to  travel  that  day, 
a  solitary  figure  sitting  on  one  of  the  curious  rocks 
that  framed  a  sort  of  gateway  to  the  diminutive 
canon.  Even  at  that  distance  he  could  distinguish 
the  form  of  Elijah  Clifford,  although  he  had  already 
noticed  that  Clifford's  rug  and  rubber  blanket, 
which  had  been  spread  out  by  his  own,  had  been 
folded  up  and  tied  ready  for  the  day's  trip. 

Before  the  rest  of  the  sleepers  had  stirred,  Clifford 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  245 

came  back  to  the  spot  and  began  with  the  noiseless 
rapidity  of  an  Indian  to  build  the  fire  in  the  sand 
preparatory  to  the  breakfast,  talking  in  a  soft  voice 
to  Bauer,  as  if  Bauer  had  asked  him  a  question,  al- 
though Bauer  had  not  said  a  word  except  "  Good- 
morning,"  when  Clifford  cheerfully  greeted  him. 

"  You  see,  I  used  to  work  on  a  daily  paper  in 
Kansas  City  before  I  was  converted  and  it  seems  to 
me  now  that  I  spend  most  of  my  time  trying  to  catch 
up  with  the  day  after  to-morrow.  I  never  had  any 
leisure,  never  went  to  church,  never  opened  a  Bible 
and  never  talked  with  myself.  Since  I  came  out 
here  I've  had  the  time  of  my  life  in  not  only  talking 
with  myself  but "  He  glanced  at  Bauer  wist- 
fully as  he  put  some  stones  around  the  hole  and  set 
his  coffee  pot  down  on  the  sand,  "  but  I  never  saw 
such  a  place  as  a  desert  to  find  God.  It  seems  as 
if  this  was  the  place  to  find  him.  You  know  Moses 
and  Eli j  ah  and  David  and  Paul  and  John  and  lots  of 
men  found  God  in  the  wilderness.  I  suppose  you 
could  find  him  while  working  for  a  daily  paper,  but 
He  didn't  seem  to  have  much  to  do  with  the  one  I 
was  on.  At  any  rate  I  never  found  Him  there. 
That's  the  reason  I  like  to  get  up  early.  There's 
a  time  in  the  morning  between  four  and  five  out  here, 
when  it  appears  to  me  God  has  more  time  to  tend  to 
individuals.  Most  everybody  is  asleep  soundest 
about  that  time  and  He  can  pay  attention  better  to 
the  comparatively  few  folks  that  don't  need  so  much 
rest" — Elijah  said  it  as  if  to  apologise  for  the 
habits  of  the  rest  of  the  party  and  Bauer  could  not 


246  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

help  smiling  at  his  note  of  evident  haste  not  to  take 
too  much  credit  to  himself  for  early  rising.  "  I 
thought  maybe  you  might  kind  of  wonder  at  my 
ways,  and  think  maybe  I  got  up  to  write  poetry  or 
some  such  stuff.  I  believe  you  understand,  eh?  " 

"  I  believe  I  do,"  said  Bauer  gravely.  "  And  I 
appreciate  your  confidence.  I  know  what  it  means 
to  try  to  find  God  in  a  crowd.  I  think  that  is  one 
reason  Jesus  had  to  leave  the  multitude  and  go  out 
into  the  desert  places." 

"  Yes,"  said  Clifford,  sitting  down  on  the  sand  and 
putting  his  coffee  pot  on  a  stone.  "  I  didn't  men- 
tion Him.  I  thought  you  would  remember  that 
yourself." 

This  little  glimpse  into  Elijah  Clifford's  person- 
ality did  Bauer  a  world  of  good  and  strengthened  a 
growing  liking  for  him  which  led  in  the  process  of 
time,  as  this  story  goes  on,  to  some  very  important 
results  in  Bauer's  life. 

The  day  promised  to  be  unusually  hot  and  it  was 
Masters's  plaa  to  get  through  the  Black  Gorge 
canon  early,  as  it  was  famous  for  its  stifling  heat 
and  dust  storms  later  in  the  day.  So  camp  was 
broken  immediately  after  breakfast  and  the  wagons 
were  soon  loaded  with  the  bedding  and  dishes  and 
the  journey  resumed  in  the  same  order,  so  far  as 
the  travellers  were  concerned,  as  before.  Mr.  Mas- 
ters, who  knew  the  trail  at  the  other  end  of  the 
gorge  better  than  anyone  else,  went  first  with  Mrs. 
Masters,  Miss  Clifford,  Miss  Gray  and  Walter  and 
Clifford  with  Mr.  Douglas,  Mrs.  Douglas,  Helen, 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  247 

and  Bauer  followed,  Peshleldetsetti  and  the  heavy 
wagon  trailing  along  in  the  rear. 

Just  as  they  were  entering  the  Gorge,  Clifford 
turned  and  looked  back  towards  the  camp.  Out 
across  the  Red  Rock  elevation  he  pointed  out  three 
black  specks.  Looking  at  them  through  the  mission 
field  glass,  a  former  gift  from  Mr.  Douglas,  he  an- 
nounced them  to  be  probably  three  wagons  with 
tourists  from  Canon  Diablo  bound  for  the  snake 
dance. 

"  May  be  your  friend  from  Pittsburg,  Van  Shaw, 
is  in  that  outfit,"  he  said  to  Bauer. 

Bauer  did  not  reply.  He  hoped  Van  Shaw  would 
not  meet  Walter  or  any  of  their  party.  There  was 
no  reason  why  he  should,  but  every  time  he  thought 
of  Van  Shaw  he  felt  uncomfortable,  something  in 
him  rose  up  nearest  to  a  feeling  of  hate  and  disgust 
he  had  ever  known. 

Clifford  faced  around  and  resumed  the  driving. 
He  noted  as  he  turned  into  the  opening  that  Pesh- 
lekietsetti  had  stopped  just  outside  to  strap  on  one 
of  the  water  barrels  more  securely,  but  seeing  that 
he  did  not  ask  for  any  help  he  drove  on  into  the 
Gorge. 

The  Gorge  was  weirdly  irregular  and  the  windings 
of  the  road  were  so  many  that  very  soon  the  wagons 
were  all  separated  from  view  of  one  another. 

In  this  volcanic  land  one  could  not  account  for 
the  fantastic  and  even  monstrous  shapes  of  cliff  and 
ledge  and  overhanging  rock  masses  without  calling 
ap  some  gigantic  upheaval  of  all  nature's  vast  play 


248  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

of  forces;  earthquakes,  fire,  volcano,  flood,  ,>/ind, 
sand  spouts  of  enormous  height  and  velocity,  one 
after  the  other  all  these  elemental  storms  must  have 
rocked  and  heaved  and  rent  and  tortured  the  earth 
and  after  all  had  passed  by,  the  hurricane  of  volcanic 
fire  and  missiles  must  have  scattered  the  debris  of 
high  mountains  twisted  into  lumps  of  matter,  vary- 
ing in  size  from  a  sky  scraper  to  a  comma. 

It  began  and  ended  abruptly,  as  if  in  a  freak  of 
the  upheaval  a  tornado  had  picked  up  the  end  of  a 
canon  somewhere,  turned  it  over  several  times  in 
transit  and  finally  dropped  it  bottom  side  up  on  the 
desert,  breaking  it  open  when  it  fell  and  letting  the 
fragments  bump  around  like  the  pounded  rock  in  a 
concrete  mixer. 

In  among  these  boulders  Elijah  Clifford  guided 
the  team,  exercising  all  his  skill,  for  one  of  the  horses 
was  partly  mustang,  full  of  unused  energy,  and  Mr. 
Masters  had  chosen  the  trip  to  Oraibi  to  give  the 
animal  some  necessary  training,  trusting  in  Clif- 
ford's love  of  horses  and  his  special  characteristic 
of  carefulness  to  avoid  any  accidents.  And  all 
would  have  gone  well  if  the  unforeseen  and  unavoid- 
able had  not  occurred. 

They  were  almost  out  of  the  gorge  and  Clifford 
had  started  to  reply  to  a  question  of  Paul's  con- 
cerning the  nature  of  the  rocks  which  were  different 
in  colour  on  one  side  of  the  canon  from  the  other, 
when  the  mustang  shied  in  a  perfectly  excusable 
manner  at  a  cedar  stump  which  hung  out  from  a 
ledge  so  close  that  it  almost  scraped  the  frightened 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  249 

animal.  Before  Clifford  could  get  the  team  back 
into  the  narrow  road  the  front  wheel  struck  a  big 
stone.  The  jolt  flung  the  pole  with  a  jerk  against 
the  mustang.  He  reared  up  and  slewed  around,  un- 
hitching one  of  his  tugs.  Even  then  Clifford  might 
have  saved  the  situation  if  one  of  the  reins  had  not 
broken.  But  when  that  snapped  it  was  a  hopeless 
task.  Before  any  of  the  party  knew  what  to  do  the 
now  maddened  team  was  thrashing  up  the  gorge. 
The  result  was  only  a  question  of  the  law,  if  there 
is  any,  of  accidents.  Nobody  ever  knew  just  what 
did  happen  in  detail.  Paul  and  Esther  said  after- 
wards that  they  jumped,  although  they  had  always 
said  they  never  would  jump  out  of  a  runaway  wagon. 
Helen  clung  terrified  to  her  seat  until  the  hind  wheel 
on  her  side  of  the  wagon  was  splintered  and  the 
wagon  box  fell  down  and  she  found  herself  flung  up 
against  the  bank.  Clifford  jumped  for  one  of  the 
horse's  backs,  hoping  to  stop  them  by  reaching  their 
bridles,  but  his  foot  caught  on  the  dashboard  and  he 
fell,  just  missing  the  wheels  as  he  rolled  down  the 
trail.  Bauer  was  the  only  one  to  remain  in  the 
wagon.  Just  as  Clifford  made  his  unsuccessful  leap 
the  tongue  snapped.  The  horses  tore  themselves 
loose  from  the  wrecked  wagon  and  swept  in  a  frenzy 
of  fear  through  the  gorge,  banging  the  fragments  of 
tongue,  whiffletrees  and  harness  about  them,  and 
what  was  left  of  the  wagon  came  to  a  stop  between 
two  big  boulders,  with  Bauer  clinging  to  the  front 
seat  with  white  strained  face  wondering  if  the  rest 
of  them  were  all  killed. 


250  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

Clifford  picked  himself  up  and  came  limping  along 
to  where  Paul  and  Esther  were  sitting.  He  was  all 
right  himself  excepting  a  few  minor  bruises  and  was 
overjoyed  to  find  that  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Douglas  had 
escaped  serious  injury.  But  when  the  three  of  them 
came  to  Helen  they  found  her  almost  in  a  swoon." 

"  I  think  I  sprained  my  ankle,"  she  said  with  a 
faint  attempt  at  a  smile. 

"  Thank  God  we  are  not  all  killed ! "  exclaimed 
Esther,  but  before  she  could  say  another  word 
Helen  had  fainted.  Her  father  and  mother  were 
busy  over  her,  Bauer  had  run  up  with  a  water  can- 
teen and  Clifford  was  ruefully  regarding  the  wreck 
of  the  wagon  when  the  sound  of  wheels  was  heard. 

"  There's  Peshlekietsetti,"  he  said.  "  We'll  have 
to  put  Miss  Helen  in  the  chuck  wagon.  But  how  on 
earth  are  we  going  to  get  to  Oraibi  now?  " 

A  large  wagon  turned  the  bend  and  the  driver 
pulled  up  sharply.  It  was  not  Peshlekietsetti,  but 
the  tourist  party  from  Canon  Diablo.  Bauer,  as  he 
anxiously  stood  by  Mrs.  Douglas  trying  to  restore 
Helen,  was  conscious  that  a  group  of  astonished  and 
interested  tourists  had  climbed  down  from  the  wagon 
and  had  come  up  to  the  scene  of  the  accident.  As 
he  looked  up  he  saw  Van  Shaw  and  heard  him  say, 
"  Why,  hello,  Bauer !  Didn't  expect  to  see  you 
here.  Had  bad  accident,  haven't  you?  Anything 
we  can  do  to  help?  '* 


CHAPTER    XIV 

IT'S  very  kind  of  you,  and "  Mr.  Douglas  be- 
gan. It  is  astonishing  how  commonplace  most  peo- 
ple are  in  moments  of  accident.  Paul  had  never  seen 
Van  Shaw,  did  not  know  him  in  the  least  and  simply 
saw  a  goodlooking  young  man  dressed  in  a  service- 
able camping  suit,  who  had  appeared  at  a  moment 
when  help  of  some  kind  was  imperatively  needed. 
"  You  seem  to  be  acquainted,  Felix.  One  of  your 
classmates  at  Burrton?  Oh,  you're  the  Pittsburg 
party?  " 

Felix  hesitated  and  Van  Shaw  saved  him  the 
trouble  of  an  introduction. 

"  Yes,  I'm  Van  Shaw,  you  know.  Our  oufit  can 
take  care  of  everything  without  any  trouble.  Mr. 
Douglas  of  Milton?  You're  with  the  Tolchaco 
party,  aren't  you?  Yes,  we'll  be  glad  to  be  of  serv- 
ice." 

Van  Shaw's  glance  travelled  to  Helen,  who  after 
a  brave  effort  to  keep  from  fainting  again,  had  finally 
succumbed  and  lay  back  against  the  bank.  Her 
mother  was  calm,  and  although  this  was  the  first  time 
in  all  Helen's  life  that  she  had  ever  shown  any  such 
physical  yielding  to  pain,  Esther  accepted  the  situa- 
tion, and  with  Paul's  help  did  the  only  thing  obvious 
and  soon  had  the  girl  resting,  after  the  fainting 

251 


252  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

spell,  in  one  of  the  chuck  wagons  belonging  to  Van 
Shaw's  party. 

After  that,  events  seemed  to  follow  in  a  natural 
sequence,  that  could  not  reasonably  have  occurred 
in  any  other  way.  The  frightened  horses  soon  over- 
took and  ran  into  the  wagon  in  front.  Masters  and 
Walter  caught  them  and  as  soon  as  possible  came 
running  back  up  the  gorge,  panting  and  fearful. 
Their  surprise  and  relief  when  they  learned  that  no 
one  was  seriously  injured  were  great.  The  broken 
wagon  was,  however,  such  a  wreck,  that  not  even 
Elijah  Clifford's  ingenuity  could  repair  it  suffi- 
ciently for  use,  and  with  the  exception  of  a  few  serv- 
iceable pieces,  it  was  left  behind.  The  two  parties 
brought  together  by  the  quick  process  of  accident, 
at  last  continued  the  journey  in  company,  but  for 
Felix  Bauer  a  cloud  had  come  up  over  the  clear  sky 
of  his  pleasure.  He  had  never  been  able  to  endure 
Van  Shaw,  and  it  was  exasperating  to  him  and  an- 
noying to  Walter  to  be  under  any  obligations  to  one 
who,  back  in  the  old  school,  had  moved  in  another 
circle  and  lived  according  to  other  moral  codes. 

Van  Shaw  on  meeting  Walter  had  simply  said, 
"  Hello,  Douglas !  Great  place  this  old  desert, 
hey?  "  He  did  not  wait  for  Walter  to  say  anything 
but  rattled  on.  "  This  snake  dance  we're  going  to  is 
said  to  be  a  corker.  It's  a  beastly  old  distance  to 
come  to  see  it.  I  don't  mind.  But  the  camp  grub 
gets  the  mater  pretty  bad." 

The  other  members  in  the  Pittsburg  party  were 
Van  Shaw's  mother,  just  referred  to  as  "  mater," 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  253 

his  aunt,  a  Mrs.  Waldron,  two  young  men,  friends 
of  Van  Shaw,  Mrs.  Waldron's  two  nieces,  and  a 
cook  and  three  drivers.  They  had  fitted  out  at 
Canon  Diablo  and  crossed  the  Little  Colorado  at  the 
upper  ford,  several  hours  after  the  Tolchaco  party 
had  passed,  but  owing  to  better  equipment  in  the 
matter  of  horses  and  wagons  they  had  overtaken 
the  latter  just  as  Touchiniteel  and  his  two  Indians 
had  entered  the  gorge. 

By  noon  the  wagons  were  all  out  of  the  gorge  and 
in  full  view  of  the  Crested  Buttes.  Helen  was  rest- 
ing as  well  as  could  be  expected  but  was  evidently  in 
great  pain.  Masters,  who  was  something  of  a 
doctor  and  surgeon,  did  the  best  he  could  with  the 
simple  remedies  he  carried,  but  declared  the  sprain 
to  be  a  very  serious  one,  and  at  a  little  consultation 
held  at  lunch  time,  the  feasibility  of  abandoning  the 
trip  and  turning  back  to  Tolchaco  on  account  of 
Helen's  condition  was  discussed. 

When  Helen  heard  of  it  she  emphatically  ob- 
jected. 

"  I  won't  listen  to  such  a  thing.  I'm  very  com- 
fortable. I  don't  want  the  rest  of  you  to  lose  the 
enjoyment  of  the  trip  on  my  account.  The  only 
thing  that  worries  me  is  the  fear  I  am  causing 
trouble  to  these  other  people." 

The  "  other  people,"  represented  by  Van  Shaw 
and  the  young  men  friends,  were  near  the  chuck 
wagon  when  Helen  made  this  last  remark.  Van 
Shaw  hastened  to  assure  her  that  no  one  was  put 
out  in  the  least  by  her  presence  there. 


254  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

"  I  don't  feel  sure  of  that.  It  seems  to  me  that 
more  than  one  person  must  have  been  '  put  out '  of 
here  when  I  was  put  in.  I  take  up  a  great  deal  of 
room  and  I  am  sure  there  were  some  seats  in  this 
wagon." 

Van  Shaw  protested  that  his  party  had  two  ex- 
tra saddle  horses  and  that  as  for  himself  he  pre- 
ferred to  walk.  He  needed  the  exercise. 

The  other  young  men  joined  in  gallantly.  Miss 
Douglas  was  free  to  ride  in  any  or  all  of  the  wagons 
as  long  as  she  chose. 

Helen  smiled  at  all  of  them  impartially  and  ex- 
pressed her  thanks  to  Van  Shaw  in  particular. 
Felix  Bauer  who  with  Walter  was  standing  in  the 
group  with  the  rest  during  this  little  conversation, 
wondered  for  the  first  time  in  his  life  if  Helen  Doug- 
las was  a  coquette.  If  she  knew  Van  Shaw  as  well 
as  he  and  Walter  knew  him  would  she  smile  so 
sweetly  at  him,  and  on  such  brief  acquaintance? 
To  Felix  Bauer  the  whole  thing  was  incomprehen- 
sible. Even  allowing  something  for  the  swiftness 
with  which  acquaintances  can  be  made  in  the  desert 
during  a  camping  experience,  especially  under  cir- 
cumstances favoured  by  such  an  accident  as  had  oc- 
curred, it  still  was  not  seemly  that  a  girl  like  Helen 
Douglas  should  even  in  the  slightest  degree  en- 
courage the  attention  of  fellows  like  Van  Shaw. 

Felix  was  so  disturbed  by  his  own  feelings  over 
the  affair  that  during  the  whole  of  the  afternoon  he 
avoided  the  wagon  where  Helen  was.  Once,  how- 
ever, as  he  looked  back,  to  his  indignant  surprise  he 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  255 

noted  Van  Shaw  driving  the  team  and  turning  about 
from  time  to  time  as  if  to  converse  with  Helen,  who 
was  lying  on  a  camp  bed  under  the  canopy  cover 
which  had  been  pulled  back,  on  account  of  the  heat, 
so  as  to  allow  Helen  a  glance  now  and  then  of  some 
passing  point  of  interest.  Once  Felix  was  sure  he 
heard  her  laugh  at  some  remark  made  by  Van  Shaw 
in  comment  perhaps  on  Touchiniteel's  curious  sailor 
made  costume. 

As  soon  as  he  could  get  a  chance  to  speak  to 
Walter,  Felix  gave  voice  to  his  feelings,  for  the  time 
being  entirely  forgetful  of  the  very  important  fact 
that  up  to  this  time  he  had  never  by  word  or  look 
betrayed  to  Walter  his  feeling  for  his  sister. 

"  Do  you  see  that?  "  he  spoke  to  Walter  as  they 
walked  along  together  a  little  distance  from  the 
wagons.  The  men  had  nearly  all  got  down  to  walk 
over  a  piece  of  particularly  hard  going  for  the 
teams. 

Walter  looked  over  in  the  direction  of  Helen 
where  Bauer  was  looking  as  he  spoke,  and  shrugged 
his  shoulders. 

"  Yes,  but  what  of  it?  " 

"  You  know  Van  Shaw?  " 

"  Well,  I  don't  like  it,  of  course,  but  Helen  is 
old  enough  to  look  out  for  herself." 

"  Do  you  mean  that  you  are  willing  to  have  her 
become  friendly  with  him?"  said  Felix,  his  simple 
clean  mind  horrified  at  the  apparent  indifference  of 
Walter  to  Van  Shaw's  general  looseness  of  moral 
habits  as  they  knew  him  in  Burrton. 


256  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

"Well,  what  can  I  do?  "  said  Walter  with  some 
show  of  irritation.  "  Do  you  want  me  to  go  back 
there,  politely  ask  Van  Shaw  to  stop  the  team,  and 
say  to  Helen  in  his  hearing :  '  Dear  sister,  the  young 
man  who  is  amusing  you  so  finely  this  afternoon  is 
the  son  of  the  greatest  and  most  notorious  railroad 
wrecker  in  America.  He  himself  is  known  in  the 
school  at  Burrton  as  the  fastest  and  most  vulgar 
youth  in  the  institution.  He  drinks,  he  gambles, 
he  is  famous  for  the  number  of  indecent  stories  he 
can  tell,  he  has  his  rooms  adorned  with  pictures  of 
variety  actresses,  he  has  no  high  aims  in  life  and 
never  earned  a  cent  since  he  was  born,  although  he 
spends  several  thousands  of  dollars  every  year  which 
his  father  makes  for  him  by  ruining  other  people. 
In  short,  sister,  he  is  the  last  young  man  in  all  the 
universe  with  whom  I,  your  brother,  would  desire 
you  to  become  acquainted.  Therefore,  I  am  going 
to  ask  Mr.  Van  Shaw  to  wait  until  with  the  help  of 
Mr.  Bauer  who  knows  all  these  facts  about  Mr.  Van 
Shaw  as  well  as  I  do,  we  transfer  you  from  this 
wagon  to  one  of  ours,  although  owing  to  our  com- 
parative poverty  as  measured  by  this  Pittsburg  out- 
fit our  wagons  are  not  at  all  fitted  to  carry  beauti- 
ful young  ladies  who  have  sustained  severe  ankle 
sprains.'  Do  you  want  me  to  go  over  to  Van 
Shaw  and  get  off  a  speech  like  that  in  order  to 
save  Helen?  " 

Bauer  stared  at  Walter  in  solemn  surprise. 
Then  to  Walter's  surprise  he  said  curtly: 

"  Every  word  of  it  is  true." 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  257 

"  Yes,  but  you  can't  always  say  everything  that's 
true.  I  wish  for  the  life  of  me  that  Van  Shaw  had 
never  put  in  an  appearance.  It  has  spoiled  the  trip 
for  me.  Besides,  you  never  can  tell  what  a  girl  will 
do.  They're  all  romantic  and  above  all,  unreason- 
able. Van  Shaw  is  good  looking  and  he's  got  money 
coming  to  him  like  the  sand  of  this  desert.  And  I 
don't  forget  a  story  Clifford  was  telling  us  this 
morning.  It  was  about  some  American  girl  very 
much  like  Helen,  in  a  book,  who  said  to  another  girl 
that  all  she  wanted  of  a  husband  in  New  York  was 
a  man  to  go  down  town  in  the  morning  to  earn 
enough  money  for  her  to  spend  up  town  in  the  after- 
noon." 

"  You  don't  mean  to  say  that  your  sister  has  any 
such  ambition  as  that,  do  you?  "  asked  Felix  even 
slower  than  usual. 

Walter  looked  at  him  curiously. 

"  You  don't  know  Helen  very  well.  She  is  very 
ambitious,  and  she  has  great  respect  for  wealth. 
She  thinks  money  can  do  most  anything  in  this  old 
world.  There's  no  telling  what  Helen  will  do  when 
it  comes  to  marrying.  I  can't  imagine  her  marry- 
ing a  poor  man." 

"I  would  rather  see  her  married  to  Touchiniteel 
than  to  Van  Shaw !  "  said  Bauer  with  a  savage  out- 
burst that  accelerated  his  speech  and  changed  his 
entire  countenance. 

Walter  looked  at  Felix  again,  with  the  same  cu- 
rious regard. 

"  You  seem  to  be  a  good  deal  disturbed  over  the 


258  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

matter,  old  man.  What  difference  does  it  make  to 
you  whether  Helen  marries  Van  Shaw  or  Touchini- 
teel?" 

Bauer  turned  his  face  toward  Walter  with  a  look 
Walter  never  forgot.  They  were  walking  near  one 
of  the  old  ruins  of  an  abandoned  village.  Pieces  of 
broken  pottery  and  grinders  were  littered  over  the 
ground.  Felix  motioned  to  Walter  to  go  farther 
up  into  the  mound  where  these  ruins  were  scattered. 

"  We  can  catch  up  with  the  teams.  The  folks 
will  think  we  are  looking  for  specimens,"  he  said. 
Walter  anticipated  Bauer's  story  as  he  sat  down 
by  him  and  in  the  midst  of  an  ancient  cliff  dwellers 
century  old  debris  of  a  home,  heard  his  chum's 
simple  story.  After  it  was  told  in  Bauer's  slow 
but  in  this  case  intense  manner,  Walter  said: 

"I'm  awfully  sorry,  old  man;  but  I  don't  believe 
you  stand  a  ghost  of  a  chance  with  Helen." 

**  I  don't  suppose  I  do,"  assented  Bauer  humbly. 
"  But  you  can  see  now  why  I  feel  as  I  do  and  what 
it  means  to  me  to  see  a  fellow  like  Van  Shaw  with 
her.  It  is  not  only  torture  to  me.  I  think  some 
one  ought  to  tell  her." 

"Tell  her  what?" 

"  About  Van  Shaw.  Such  men  have  no  business 
to  make  love  to  pure  girls  like  Helen." 

Walter  remonstrated. 

"  It's  absurd,  Felix.  He  isn't  making  love  to 
her.  Nonsense." 

"  He  is !  "  said  Bauer  with  a  passionate  burst  that 
astonished  Walter.  "  You  do  not  know  him  as  well 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  259 

as  I  do.  I  am  acquainted  with  Van  Shaw's  history 
through  the  Raines-Bracken  affair.  You  were  not 
at  Burrton  when  that  happened.  Nothing  but  the 
fear  of  losing  some  of  old  Van  Shaw's  legacies  to 
the  school  prevented  young  Van  Shaw's  expulsion 
at  the  time.  I  can't  go  into  the  affair,  Walter,  but 
it  gave  me  a  loathing  for  Van  Shaw  that  I  never  can 
overcome.  It  isn't  because  I  feel  holier  than  thou 
or  anything  like  that;  God  knows  I  am  in  need  of 
his  great  forgiveness;  but  it  seems  as  wrong  for  us 
to  leave  your  sister  unacquainted  with  the  real  char- 
acter of  Van  Shaw  as  it  would  to  let  her  play  with 
one  of  these  rattlesnakes  we  are  going  to  see  in 
Oraibi  the  day  after  to-morrow,  not  knowing  how 
deadly  they  were." 

"  Who'll  tell  her?     Will  you?  " 

"I?  How  can  I  do  it.  No.  But  it  would  seem 
quite  the  thing  for  you  or  your  mother " 

"  Mother  doesn't  know  him,"  Walter  interrupted 
somewhat  curtly.  "  I  don't  see  how  I  can  say  any- 
thing," Walter  went  on,  with  the  caution  many 
school  boys  feel  about  telling  on  others.  "  I  really 
believe  Helen  is  capable  of  protecting  herself.  And 
one  of  the  quickest  ways  to  get  a  girl  interested  in 
a  man  is  to  hint  that  he  is  not  as  good  as  he  might 
be." 

"  That's  your  philosophy  imbibed  from  your 
six  best  sellers,"  retorted  Felix.  Walter  was  a  con- 
stant novel  reader.  "  I  am  going  to  have  a  talk 
with  your  mother  about  the  whole  affair.  She  will 
know  what  to  do." 


260  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

"  Will  you  tell  her  how  you  feel  about  Helen?  " 

Felix  winced. 

"  She  knows  already." 

"  Oh,  you  have  told  her." 

"  No,  she  knows  without  my  telling." 

"  Have  you  spoken  to  Helen?  " 

The  colour  swept  up  over  Bauer's  face. 

"  No,  and  I  never  will." 

"  Does  she  know?  "  Walter  persisted. 

"  I  looked  at  her  once,"  faltered  Bauer,  and  for 
the  soul  of  him  Walter  could  not  help  roaring  out 
at  him. 

As  they  rose  to  make  their  way  to  the  wagons 
which  had  halted  in  a  group  to  wait  for  them  and 
others  who  had  fallen  behind,  Walter  smote  Bauer 
on  the  back. 

"  Courage,  old  man.  The  case  is  not  all  hope- 
less. If  you  have  got  as  far  as  a  look,  that's  pro- 
gress. What  did  Helen  do?  " 

But  Bauer  drew  into  his  reserve  at  this  point 
and  gravely  refused  to  talk  any  more,  and  Walter 
did  not  venture  to  insist.  Only,  as  they  were  going 
to  their  wagons  Bauer  simply  said,  "  I  shall  tell 
your  mother.  It  would  not  be  right  not  to  let  her 
know." 

"  I  don't  know  what  mother  can  do  about  it," 
Walter  replied  dubiously. 

"  Mrs.  Douglas  is  very  wise."  said  Bauer.  To 
that  Walter  made  no  answer,  and  they  joined  the 
rest  of  the  party  without  further  words. 

That  night  the  two  camps  were  pitched  close  to- 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  261 

gether,  and  two  fires  burned  like  red  specks  in  the 
holes  dug  for  the  sagebrush  and  cedar  roots..  The 
chuck  wagon  in  which  Helen  had  been  riding  was 
left  standing  close  by  the  tent  pitched  for  her 
mother  and  Mrs.  Masters.  She  seemed  unusually 
cheerful  and  in  answer  to  many  inquiries  assured  all 
that  she  was  resting  easily  and  was  nearly  free  from 
pain. 

After  the  camp  meal  was  over  and  the  desert  grey 
of  the  soft  night  had  begun  to  wrap  itself  like  an  en- 
veloping cloak  about  the  two  camps,  as  quietly  and 
without  warning  of  their  presence  natives  of  that 
weird  tract  of  earth  began  to  appear.  When  the 
camp  was  made  there  was  not  a  hogon  or  any  form 
of  human  habitation  to  be  seen.  But  as  Paul  came 
back  to  the  fire  circle  after  helping  Masters  pitch 
the  last  of  the  tents  he  was  astonished  to  see  a  dozen 
Indians,  mostly  young  men,  sitting  on  the  sand  close 
by.  Masters  spoke  a  word  to  them  when  he  came 
up  to  the  fire  and  one  of  the  men  answered  briefly. 

"  They  have  come  all  the  way  from  Leupp,"  he 
said  to  Paul.  "  Walked  the  entire  distance  of 
sixty-seven  miles  since  sunrise." 

"Do  you  know  any  of  them?"  Paul  asked  cu- 
riously. 

"  Yes,  I  have  met  one  of  the  young  men  at 
Shungapavi.  They  are  all  going  up  to  see  the 
snake  dance.  It's  the  only  feature  about  the  Hopi 
that  appeals  to  them." 

Miss  Gray  began  to  sing;  it  seemed  to  Walter 
who  was  sitting  on  the  Navajo  blanket  near  her  that 


262  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

he  had  never  heard  a  voice  of  just  that  particular 
quality.  It  fitted  into  the  surroundings  wonder- 
fully. The  dusky  faces  with  the  inevitable  head- 
cloth  of  red  or  white  were  intent  on  hers,  and  when 
the  song  ceased  and  Walter  looked  up  and  around  he 
saw  the  members  of  the  other  camp  had  come  over 
and  were  standing  or  sitting  about.  Among  the 
faces  that  were  most  noticeable  to  Walter  was  Van 
Shaw's.  He  was  standing  almost  directly  opposite 
Miss  Gray  staring  at  her  with  a  strange  look  as 
if  he  were  in  doubt  of  the  reality  of  Miss  Gray's 
presence  in  this  group.  It  seemed  to  Walter  that 
he  was  about  to  ask  a  question,  but  Masters,  who  at 
campfire  was  always  intent  on  bringing  his  Gospel 
message  to  the  miscellaneous  audience  he  might  not 
see  again  in  many  months,  began  to  speak  softly  and 
affectionately. 

The  vistors  from  the  outside  world,  including  the 
party  from  Pittsburg,  could  not  understand  one 
word.  It  was  not  that  that  moved  them.  But 
Masters  was  gifted  with  a  splendid  voice  in  full  con- 
trol. After  he  had  been  speaking  ten  minutes  the 
figures  about  the  little  fire  crept  closer  up  and  nar- 
rowed the  circle.  Masters's  face  was  eloquent. 
Tears  rolled  down  his  cheeks.  His  gestures  were 
wide  and  conveyed  tender  invitation.  He  spoke 
only  a  few  moments  more  and  ended  abruptly.  Old 
Peshlekietsetti  gently  dropped  a  root  of  dowegie 
bush  on  the  almost  extinct  fire.  The  coals  burst 
into  a  new  flame  and  the  light  flared  up  again,  show- 
ing to  Felix,  Helen's  wondering  face  framed  in  the 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  263 

opening  fold  of  the  wagon  cover,  while  Mrs.  Douglas 
close  by  her  was  listening  with  sympathetic  atten- 
tion deepened  into  reverent  surprise  when  Elijah 
Clifford  with  his  hands  over  his  knees,  his  head 
bowed,  prayed  the  evening  prayer  in  a  spirit  that 
seemed  to  proclaim  another  man  from  the  one  they 
had  known  during  the  day.  And  then  another 
hymn  in  which  all  were  asked  by  Miss  Gray  to  join. 
It  all  smote  Felix  with  a  feeling  of  wonder,  it  was 
so  new  and  unusual  to  his  experience.  But  to 
Masters  and  Miss  Gray  and  Clifford  it  was  the  regu- 
lar daily  habit  of  their  lives,  as  common  and  neces- 
sary to  them  as  it  was  for  the  tourist  crowd  looking 
on  to  close  the  day's  life  with  a  heavy  dinner  of 
seven  courses  and  bridge  whist  into  the  next  morn- 
ing. The  last  glimpse  Walter  had  of  Van  Shaw  as 
he  moved  off  towards  his  own  wagons  was  the  look 
he  cast  at  Miss  Gray  again  and  then  transferred  to 
the  canvas  that  covered  the  chuck  wagon  where 
Helen  and  her  mother  sat  talking  over  the  strange 
events  of  the  day  and  its  strange  ending. 

The  next  day  was  a  severe  experience  for  old 
desert  travellers.  The  wind  blew  almost  a  gale. 
The  sand  drifted  like  snow  and  the  mid  day  meal 
was  taken  standing,  everyone  eating  as  best  he  could, 
standing  up,  and  making  no  attempt  at  the  setting 
of  a  table  or  the  formality  of  a  regular  meal. 

Late  in  the  afternoon  the  grey  rock  of  Oraibi 
showed  through  the  whistling  sand  storm.  The 
wagons  halted  a  little  while  by  the  Oraibi  Wash  be- 
fore making  the  last  miles  through  the  difficult  sand 


264  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

hillocks  at  the  foot  of  the  cliff.  And  it  was  during 
this  resting  period  that  word  came  to  Masters  from 
one  of  the  Hopis  who  had  a  corn  field  on  the  Wash 
that  recent  rains  at  Oraibi  had  so  damaged  the 
wagon  trial  leading  to  the  top  that  it  would  be  im- 
possible to  drive  up.  All  visitors  and  tourists  must 
walk  up  the  foot  trail. 

"  That  means  that  Helen  can't  get  to  the  village. 
It  will  be  a  great  disappointment,"  said  Mrs. 
Douglas. 

It  was  on  the  tongue  of  Felix  Bauer  to  suggest  a 
plan  for  carrying  Helen  up  the  trail  on  one  of  the 
camp  cots  when  Van  Shaw  struck  in. 

"  Pardon  me,  Mrs.  Douglas,  but  it  will  be  an 
easy  thing  to  carry  Miss  Douglas  up  the  trail  on  a 
camp  cot.  Four  of  us  can  do  it  easily.  Just  put 
some  tent  poles  under  the  sides  and  let  the  two  be- 
hind rest  the  poles  on  their  shoulders  and  the  two 
in  front  carry  lower.  In  that  way  I'm  sure  we  can 
get  Miss  Douglas  to  the  top  without  any  incon- 
venience to  her.  It  would  be  a  shame  to  come  all 
this  distance  and  eat  all  this  dirt  and  miss  the  real 
thing  after  all." 

"  I  don't  want  to  miss  it,  of  course,"  Helen 
faltered,  looking  at  the  group  of  young  men,  Walter, 
Felix,  Van  Shaw  and  his  two  friends.  "  But  I'm 
giving  a  lot  of  trouble  and  I'm  afraid  I'm  a  nui- 
sance." 

"  Then  we  will  abate  it  by  carrying  you  up  there," 
said  Van  Shaw  smiling,  and  Helen  smiled  back  at 
him,  to  Felix  Bauer's  rage.  The  whole  thing  was 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  265 

getting  to  be  torture  to  him.  And  it  all  intensified 
his  determination  to  have  a  plain  talk  with  Mrs. 
Douglas.  The  opportunity  for  it  was  not  easy. 
Mrs.  Douglas  was  close  by  Helen  nearly  every  mo- 
ment. The  camp  duties  were  many  and  the  little 
company  was  of  necessity  grouped  close  together 
during  the  march.  But  Bauer  with  his  regular  stock 
of  dogged  patience  bided  his  time,  sure  it  would 
come. 

Camp  was  pitched  that  night  at  the  foot  of  the 
Oraibi  trail.  Almost  as  soon  as  the  wagons  were 
located  Van  Shaw  came  over  to  Mrs.  Douglas  carry- 
ing a  cot. 

"  We've  got  an  extra  cot,  Mrs.  Douglas,  and  it 
won't  take  any  time  to  fix  that  litter.  We  can  use 
some  of  our  tent  poles.  I'll  be  glad  to  fix  the  thing 
up  in  the  morning." 

Mrs.  Douglas  thanked  him  quietly,  and  Helen  ex- 
pressed her  gratitude. 

"  Oh,  I  wouldn't  miss  seeing  the  sight  to-morrow 
for  anything.  Isn't  it  wonderful.  That  rock? 
How  weird  it  all  is.  Why,  you  can  hardly  tell 
where  the  rock  begins  and  the  houses  leave  off. 
Just  to  think  of  seven  or  eight  hundred  people  liv- 
ing up  there  all  these  centuries  keeping  up  these 
queer  customs.  And  oh,  look!  What  is  that?  " 

A  line  of  Indian  women  filed  past  up  the  trail 
about  twenty-five  feet  apart,  each  one  carrying  on 
her  back  a  large  clay  water  jar.  They  did  not 
walk,  they  trotted  along  in  a  tireless  steady  stride 
that  spoke  of  centuries  of  training  before  them. 


266  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

The  weight  of  the  jars  was  not  far  from  thirty 
pounds. 

Masters  was  passing  Helen's  wagon. 

"  That's  woman's  rights,"  he  said  gravely. 
"  The  water  supply  at  Oraibi  for  centuries  has  been 
jars  on  the  backs  of  women.  You  must  get  used  to 
thinking  of  seven  hundred  people  dependent  on  the 
daily  trips  of  these  women  for  all  the  water  used  on 
top  of  that  rock  for  washing,  cooking,  drinking. 
The  women  of  Oraibi  also  have  the  right  of  building 
the  houses  the  men  live  in.  They  are  the  masons, 
while  the  men  are  the  dressmakers.  And  there  are 
people  who  would  like  to  keep  these  women  per- 
petually at  these  tasks,  they  say  it  so  '  pic- 
turesque.' ' 

"  I  was  just  going  to  say  that  myself,"  said 
Helen. 

Masters  smiled  sadly.  "Look  at  the  mothers  in 
Oraibi  to-morrow.  See  what  heathenism  has  done 
for  them."  He  passed  on  and  Van  Shaw  who  had 
stared  at  Masters  as  he  spoke  said  to  Helen — 
"  They're  queer  beggars,  ain't  they.  But  I  don't 
believe  in  trying  to  change  them.  They  belong 
here.  Might  as  well  let  'em  go  on  the  way  they've 
been  going  the  last  thousand  years." 

Helen  looked  at  him  with  the  first  feeling  she  had 
had  of  possible  distrust  or  dislike.  Van  Shaw  had 
spoken  just  as  he  really  felt,  and  Helen  saw  a  brief 
ways  into  his  real  character.  But  as  she  looked 
again  at  the  winding  figures  steadily  trotting  up  the 
steep  path,  she  had  a  momentary  doubt  in  her  own 


THE    HIGH   CALLING  367 

mind  as  to  the  ultimate  wisdom  of  Masters  and 
Clifford  in  trying  to  change  the  century  old  cus- 
toms and  habits  of  these  desert  people. 

The  day  of  the  snake  dance  at  Oraibi  dawned 
strangely  with  a  heavy  shower. 

"  They're  getting  their  answer  to  their  prayer 
before  they  offer  it,"  said  Mr.  Douglas  to  Clifford 
as  they  sat  up  on  their  rugs  and  listened  to  the  down- 
pour on  the  tent. 

"  It  has  no  effect  on  them,"  replied  Clifford. 
"  The  snake  dance  means  a  prayer  for  rain  for  the 
whole  season.  This  rain  the  poor  devils  believe  is 
an  answer  to  their  prayer  made  two  years  ago.  It's 
a  little  late  in  getting  here  but  every  drop  of  water 
between  the  two  dances  is  so  accounted  for." 

By  the  middle  of  the  forenoon  it  had  cleared  up 
and  the  two  parties,  increased  by  other  tourist 
crowds  that  had  come  in  during  the  night,  proceeded 
to  climb  the  trail  into  Oraibi. 

Van  Shaw  and  his  two  friends  in  spite  of  the  rain 
had  got  up  early  and  finished  making  the  litter. 
When  the  moment  came  for  Helen  to  be  transferred 
to  it  there  was  an  embarrassing  halt  and  the  young 
men  eyed  one  another.  Felix  was  determined  to 
be  one  of  the  carriers  and  Walter  was  bound  to  be 
another.  Van  Shaw  seemed  to  take  for  granted 
that  as  he  was  the  one  who  had  suggested  the  affair 
he  should  be  another.  The  two  friends  from  Pitts- 
burg  protested  that  they  would  be  desolate  if  not 
allowed  to  help. 

Felix  and  Walter  had  gone  to  the  head  of  the  cot 


268  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

and  seized  the  ends  of  the  tent  poles  and  Van  Shaw 
had  stepped  up  to  one  of  the  poles  at  the  other  end 
when  Esther,  who  perhaps  sensed  some  electricity  in 
the  air  not  caused  by  the  recent  thunder  storm, 
said  to  Paul: 

"  You  take  hold  with  Mr.  Van  Shaw,  Paul,  and 
let  Mr.  Coleman  and  Mr.  Calder  take  their  turn 
later.  The  trail  looks  very  steep.  I'm  sure  you 
will  need  to  be  relieved  occasionally." 

They  started  accordingly  and  Helen  laughingly 
complimented  her  cavaliers  as  they  picked  up  the 
cot  and  after  several  trials  discovered  the  most 
effective  way  of  handling  it. 

The  trail  was  bounded  on  one  side  by  the  Oraibi 
cemetery.  The  recent  rains  had  washed  some  of 
the  bodies  out  of  their  graves  made  in  the  loose 
gravel  of  the  steep  hill.  The  trail  wound  up 
sharply,  disclosing  at  every  turn  some  new  marvel 
of  the  limitless  expanse  below.  A  Hopi  came  out 
on  a  ledge  far  above  them  and  chanted  his  song  to 
the  sun.  Every  step  brought  the  party  nearer  the 
queer  built  houses  and  the  kivas  with  their  project- 
ing ladders.  Other  visitors  and  tourists  were  on 
the  trail  in  front  and  the  progress  was  slow.  Several 
stops  were  made  and  changes  occurred  in  the  order 
of  carriers,  but  when  the  top  of  the  rock  was 
reached,  Masters,  who  with  Mrs.  Masters  and  Miss 
Gray  were  close  behind  the  litter,  suddenly  ex- 
claimed, "  There  is  Talavenka !  "  pointing  to  the 
roof  of  the  first  house  fronting  the  trail.  A  Hopi 
maiden,  distinguished  by  her  whorl  of  hair  as  un- 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  269 

married,  stood  up  by  the  ladder,  smiling  down  at 
the  party. 

Mrs.  Douglas,  who  was  walking  with  Mrs.  Mas- 
ters and  who  had  during  the  trip  heard  of  this  one 
Christian  Hopi,  went  over  to  the  foot  of  the  ladder 
with  her.  Paul,  who  was  tremendously  interested 
in  all  sorts  of  Indian  lore,  went  into  the  house  to  ex- 
amine some  wedding  baskets.  The  two  Pittsburg 
young  men  suddenly  found  themselves  surrounded 
with  an  Indian  group  selling  curios.  Walter 
sauntered  over  in  the  direction  of  Miss  Gray  to  ask 
her  about  the  kivas.  Felix  stayed  jealously  for  a 
while  by  Helen  who  was  simply  carried  away  with 
the  wonderful  sights  all  about  her,  but  looking  over 
in  Mrs.  Douglas's  direction  and  seeing  her  for  a 
moment  alone,  thought  his  opportunity  to  speak  to 
her  ought  to  be  seized  at  once,  and  went  over  to- 
wards her.  And  so  it  happened  naturally  enough 
that  for  a  moment  Helen  and  Van  Shaw  were  left 
together.  The  crowd  of  tourists,  curious,  chatter- 
ing, laughing,  careless,  flowed  up  the  trail  past  them 
and  began  scattering  over  the  village  seeking  curios 
and  poking  their  heads  into  the  doors  of  the  little 
houses.  The  sun  flamed  out  in  a  clear  blue  sky, 
the  grey  rock  turned  red  under  its  hot  stroke,  and 
Helen,  who  lay  restfully  on  her  litter  which  had  been 
placed  on  top  of  one  of  the  kivas,  indulged  her 
romance  loving  spirit  to  the  full  as  she  lay  there  al- 
most forgetful  of  Van  Shaw's  presence  until  she  was 
startled  out  of  her  day  dream  by  his  voice  as  he 
moved  from  where  he  had  been  standing  and  came 
and  sat  down  on  the  edge  of  the  kiva  near  her. 


CHAPTER   XV 

MISS  DOUGLAS,  I  haven't  had  half  a  chance 
to  talk  to  you  and  you'll  forgive  me,  won't 
you,  if  I  take  advantage  of  this  moment." 

Helen  was  not  in  the  slightest  degree  prepared 
for  what  Van  Shaw  was  going  to  say.  She  was  con- 
scious, as  every  beautiful  young  woman  must  be, 
of  her  charms  and  of  the  effect  of  them  on  the  young 
men  she  met,  but  she  would  have  been  a  most  re- 
markably vain  and  shallow  person  if  she  had  ever 
imagined  for  herself  such  a  scene  as  the  one  now 
being  acted  out  on  the  top  of  the  rock  at  Oraibi. 
The  wildest  stretch  of  her  romantic  temperament 
had  never  carried  her  so  far,  and  when  she  first  be- 
gan to  really  grasp  the  sense  of  what  Van  Shaw  was 
saying  she  was  frightened  and  angry.  At  the  same 
time  there  was  a  certain  feeling  of  pride  and  exulta- 
tion of  which  she  was  vaguely  ashamed. 

Helen  quietly  began  to  say  some  simple  thing  in 
reply  to  Van  Shaw's  first  remark  when  he  hurriedly 
went  on,  interrupting  her: 

"  I  won't  have  much  time  to  speak  now,  but  I'm 
going  to  risk  everything,  and  tell  you.  I  just  can't 
keep  it  to  myself.  It  may  sound  awfully  absurd 
to  you, — I  suppose  it  does,  but  I  can't  help  it. 

270 


THE    HIGH   CALLING  271 

I'm  just  simply  dead  in  love  with  you  and  I  want 
you  to  know  that  I " 

"  What ! "  said  Helen  sharply.  She  was  so  dis- 
turbed, so  confused  in  her  mind  that  Van  Shaw's 
words  seemed  unreal,  as  unreal  as  the  kiva  on 
which  she  was  sitting  or  the  changing  groups  of 
vivid  colour  moving  about  on  the  tops  of 
the  houses. 

"  I  can't  help  it,"  Van  Shaw  began  again 
hurriedly,  "  You  do  not  know  how  fascinating  you 
are.  It  has  just  swept  me  off  my  feet." 

This  time  Helen  understood  what  Van  Shaw  was 
saying  and  her  face  was  flooded  with  a  swift  wave 
of  colour.  And  she  said  coldly : 

"  You  have  no  right  to  talk  to  me  like  that.  I 
will  not  listen."  She  turned  her  head  and  saw  her 
mother  just  coming  out  of  Talavenka's  house,  stand- 
ing at  the  foot  of  the  ladder  as  if  preparing  to  go 
up  with  Mrs.  Masters  to  the  house  roof. 

"  Mother ! "  she  called,  in  a  dim  way  thinking  of 
nothing  except  her  desire  somehow  to  escape  a  very 
embarrassing  scene  with  Van  Shaw.  But  there  was 
so  much  noise  made  by  the  clattering  groups  of 
tourists  and  the  sudden  arrival  of  new  comers  that 
Mrs.  Douglas  did  not  hear.  Besides  at  that  mom- 
ent Helen  saw  Bauer  speaking  to  her  and  the  next 
moment  he  and  her  mother  had  walked  slowly  off 
together  up  the  tortuous  village  street  and  were  lost 
to  sight  in  the  crowd. 

Van  Shaw  sat  down  on  the  kiva,  and  smiled  a 
little.  But  his  face  was  pale,  and  evidently  for  one 


THE    HIGH    CALLING 

of  the  rare  occasions  in  his  life  he  was  truly  and 
desperately  in  earnest. 

"  You  can't  blame  me,  can  you?  " 

"  It's — it's  simply  impossible.  It's  out  of  the 
question.  I  have  not  known  you  two  days." 

"  It  doesn't  take  lighting  two  days  to  hit,"  said 
Van  Shaw  doggedly. 

"  I  won't  listen.  I  forbid  your  talking  to  me," 
said  Helen  haughtily. 

"  All  right.  But  you  can't  forbid  my  thinking 
of  you." 

"  But  I  can  and  I  will  refuse  to  be  in  your  com- 
pany !  "  said  Helen.  She  was  angry  now  at  some- 
thing undefined  in  Van  Shaw's  manner.  "  If  you 
do  not  leave  me  at  once,  I  will  try  to  leave  you." 
She  actually  made  a  movement  to  rise  and  put  her 
foot  on  the  ground  at  the  edge  of  the  kiva.  Van 
Shaw  instantly  got  up  and  said  quickly,  "  Of  course 
I'll  go.  But  I  can't  change  my  feelings  and  never 
shall.  Promise  me  one  thing.  Don't  believe  all 
the  stories  you  may  hear  about  me." 

He  had  turned  and  walked  up  the  street  and 
Helen  sank  back  with  a  strange  feeling  of  relief 
mingled  with  shame  and  again  that  other  feeling — 
what  was  it,  pride?  The  sense  of  power  over  men? 
the  feeling  that  her  beauty  was  a  gift  or  something 
else?  She  was  frightened  at  it  all  put  together 
and  felt  irritated  to  be  left  alone  by  the  rest  of  the 
party  as  she  looked  around  at  the  medley  of  old  and 
new  jumbled  together  in  that  Hopi  village.  And 
then  the  next  reaction  left  her  nervous  and  some- 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  278 

what  hysterical  as  she  tried  to  imagine  such  a  thing 
in  a  book.  She  actually  laughed  and  the  next 
moment  Miss  Gray  and  Walter  appeared,  at  the 
edge  of  the  kiva.  Miss  Gray  came  running  up  to 
her. 

"  It's  a  shame  to  leave  you  here  alone.  How  did 
that  happen  ?  " 

"  Oh,  I  don't  know.  I  haven't  been  alone  long. 
How  strange  everything  is." 

"  Yes.  And  it  gets  stranger  the  more  you  see 
of  it.  Talavenka  and  her  mother  have  asked  us 
to  eat  with  them.  They  will  have  something  ready 
in  about  an  hour.  You  had  better  go  in  and  rest 
there  a  while.  It's  too  hot  out  here.  Where  are 
your  jinrikisha  men?  " 

"  Van  Shaw  just  went  up  the  street,"  said  Walter 
looking  closely  at  Helen. 

"  We  don't  need  him,"  said  Miss  Gray.  "  Mr. 
Douglas,  will  you  get  Mr.  Coleman  and  Mr.  Calder? 
There  they  are,  over  there.  I'll  help,  and  we'll  take 
Helen  over  to  Talavenka's." 

Walter  went  over  to  call  the  Pittsburg  young 
men  and  Miss  Gray  and  Helen  were  together  a  mo- 
ment. Helen  suddenly  asked: 

"  Do  you  know  Mr.  Van  Shaw,  Lucy  ?  Didn't  I 
hear  you  say  to  mother  yesterday  that  he  was  re- 
lated distantly  to  your  mother?  " 

"  Yes  "  said  Miss  Gray  slowly.  "  He  is.  What 
do  you  want  to  know?  " 

"  Anything  you  can  tell  me." 

Miss  Gray  looked  troubled. 


274  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

"  Are  you  willing  to  tell  me  why  you  want  to 
know?" 

Helen  hesitated.  Walter  and  the  young  men 
were  approaching. 

"  Give  me  your  full  confidence,"  Miss  Gray  smiled 
at  Helen.  "  And  I  will  know  better  what  to  tell." 

"  I  will  when  there  is  time  for  it,"  Helen  said  and 
that  was  all  she  could  say,  before  she  was  carried 
into  Talavenka's  house. 

Once  inside  the  little  square  room  with  its  corn 
grinding  boxes  taking  up  one  whole  side  of  it  there 
was  so  much  of  interest  that  Helen  let  everything 
else  wait,  as  she  watched  the  preparations  for  the 
meal  soon  to  be  served.  It  would  be  several  hours 
before  the  snake  dance  and  in  that  time  there  was 
no  likelihood  that  Van  Shaw  would  try  to  speak  to 
her  again.  She  was  not  afraid  of  that,  but  she  felt 
uneasy  at  the  thought  of  some  future  scene,  just 
what  she  was  not  clear  about,  but  it  vexed  and  al- 
lured her  until  finally  the  surroundings  compelled 
all  her  attention  and  drove  everything  else  out  of 
her  imagination. 

Her  father  and  mother,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Masters 
and  Miss  Gray  were  invited  with  her  to  the  mid  day 
meal  in  the  house.  The  rest  of  the  Tolchaco  party 
ate  out  of  doors  on  the  platform  by  the  door. 
There  was  boiled  mutton,  red,  white  and  blue  wafer 
bread  made  of  corn  meal  that  made  one  think  he  was 
eating  wall  paper,  Elijah  Clifford  said,  melons, 
green  peas  taken  from  a  can  that  had  a  Ft.  Wayne, 
Ind.,  label  on  it,  and  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Douglas's  as- 


THE    HIGH   CALLING  275 

tonishment  some  delicious  peaches  brought  by  Tala- 
venka's  brother  all  the  way  from  their  little  garden 
down  by  the  Oraibi  Wash.  In  reply  to  questions 
from  Mr.  Masters,  who  used  Talavenka  as  interpre- 
ter, Schewingoiasche  said,  as  if  it  were  an  ordinary 
every  day  occurrence,  that  her  oldest  boy  nineteen 
years  old  had  run  twenty-five  miles  that  forenoon  to 
get  the  peaches  from  the  orchard  for  their  antici- 
pated guests. 

About  an  hour  before  sunset  they  all  went  out  to 
the  village  plaza  to  witness  the  great  event  of  the 
year  in  Oraibi.  And  as  long  as  they  live  they  will 
need  no  photographs  or  pictures  to  make  the  weird 
scene  vivid  to  them. 

Picture  a  grey  mass  of  rock  rising  up  abruptly 
above  the  desert,  bare  of  tree  or  shrub;  scattered 
over  its  irregular  top,  blocks  of  two  and  three  story 
stone  and  dried  brick  houses,  for  the  most  part 
square  in  outward  shape,  with  steps  on  the  outside 
built  into  the  wall,  or  heavy  ladders  with  long  pro- 
jecting ends  resting  upon  platforms  built  in  front  of 
small  square  topped  doorways,  the  roofs  flat  and 
covered  with  dried  grasses.  No  stairways  within 
these  houses  permitting  passage  from  lower  to  upper 
rooms,  and  all  built  after  century  old  architectural 
plans,  by  the  hands  of  women.  Between  the  blocks 
of  irregular  houses  picture  rectangular  slabs  of 
stone  rising  two  feet  above  the  ground,  containing 
an  opening  in  the  middle  out  of  which  project  high 
in  the  air  the  two  ends  of  a  hard-wood  ladder,  the 
rungs  of  which  have  been  worn  almost  through  by 


276  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

the  passage  of  naked  feet  that  have  pressed  up  and 
down  on  these  bits  of  wood  for  scores  of  years.  It 
is  not  easy  to  imagine  the  real  fact  that  down  in 
those  upstairs  cellars  the  men  of  Oraibi  lead  their 
club  life,  weaving  down  there  in  the  dim  light  that 
filters  past  the  ladder,  the  rugs  and  belts  and  other 
material  mysteriously  used  for  religious  ceremonial. 
And  down  in  the  snake  priests'  kiva,  just  over  yonder, 
the  venemous  reptiles  have  been  kept  for  weeks  past 
in  the  sacrificial  clay  jars,  out  of  which  they  have 
crawled  during  the  rites  of  their  purification  and 
hung  in  twisted  hissing  knots  out  of  the  crevices 
between  the  sides  of  the  kiva  walls,  from  which  places 
the  brown  hands  of  old  Thisdoa,  Talavenka's  father, 
have  only  this  morning  taken  them  to  put  in  the  cot- 
tonwood  booth  out  on  the  village  plaza,  where  they 
are  now  awaiting  their  part  in  the  coming  ceremony. 
For  old  Thisdoa  is  the  head  priest  and  knows  more 
of  the  mysteries  of  the  snake  nature  than  any  being 
in  Oraibi. 

The  sun  is  just  on  the  edge  of  the  desert.  All 
traces  of  the  morning  storm  are  vanished.  Out  on 
the  tops  of  the  houses  all  about  the  open  plaza, 
groups  of  men  and  women  begin  to  appear,  the  un- 
married girls  distinguished  from  the  married  by  the 
graceful  whorls  of  black  hair  standing  out  in  marked 
contrast  with  the  two  rolls  that  hang  down  past 
the  ears  of  the  matrons.  Cowboys,  Navajo  horse- 
men, traders,  all  the  non-acting  part  of  Oraibi's 
population,  tourists,  photographers,  visitors,  crowd 
up  in  a  rainbow  coloured  fringe  about  the  sandy  de- 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  277 

pression  which  now  contains  only  one  conspicuous 
object,  the  cottonwood  booth  or  kisi,  the  size  of  a 
boy's  wigwam,  having  a  canvas  flap  on  the  side  open- 
ing close  by  the  broad  board  over  which  the  feet  of 
the  priests  will  thump  as  they  file  past.  A  moving 
picture  machine  is  installed  on  top  of  a  near-bj^ 
house.  The  Boston,  New  York,  Pittsburg,  Cleve- 
land and  Chicago  tourists  and  newspaper  men  are 
grouped  about  in  what  they  believe  are  advantage- 
ous positions.  The  costumes  vary  from  smart  tai- 
lor made  dresses  worn  by  the  tourist  girls  from  Cin- 
cinnati to  a  Hopi  child's  dress  made  of  a  piece  of 
a  gunny  sack  bearing  the  name  of  a  Minnesota  flour- 
ing mill.  Over  all  the  jumble  of  old  and  new,  mod- 
ern and  ancient,  the  setting  sun  floods  the  medley 
of  colour  and  language  and  dress  and  Christian  and 
pagan.  And  in  the  stillness  that  waits  the  com- 
ing of  the  twenty-four  priests  out  of  the  kivas,  the 
town  crier  walks  out  on  the  corner  of  a  house  top 
and  cries  aloud  an  announcement  of  a  service  to  be 
held  that  night  in  the  little  mission  chapel  out  there 
on  the  edge  of  the  rock. 

"  What's  that?  "  asked  one  of  the  tourists  near 
Clifford. 

"  That's  the  town  crier  of  Oraibi,"  said  Clifford. 
"  There  are  no  newspapers  up  here  and  the  official 
village  news  purveyor  is  telling  the  crowd  to  come 
over  to  the  Gospel  meeting  to-night.  He  says  Mr. 
Masters  is  going  to  preach  in  three  languages. 
Better  come  and  hear  him  in  one  of  'em." 

The  tourist  stares  at  Clifford.     "  Well  of  all  the 


278  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

places  on  earth  for  preaching,  this  beats  me.  Do 
you  mean  to  say  a  preacher  will  actually  hold  a  serv- 
ice up  here  after  this  snake  dance  and  expect  to  get 
an  audience  ?  " 

"Will  he?"  says  Clifford  cheerfully.  "You 
had  better  come  early  or  you  won't  get  a  seat.  And 
as  for  preaching  you'll  hear  a  better  sermon  than 
you  ever  heard  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio." 

"  I  guess  that  may  be  so,"  says  the  tourist.  "  For 
I  haven't  been  to  church  since  I  don't  know  when." 

"  You  need  preaching  then,  like  the  rest  of  these 
heathen,"  said  Clifford  so  simply  that  the  Cincin- 
nati man  takes  no  offence  but  promises  to  go  over 
to  the  service  if  he  isn't  too  tired. 

The  rim  of  the  sun  is  an  hour  above  the  horizon 
and  the  crowd  has  ceased  its  chatter.  It  is  very 
quiet  on  the  grey  rock  of  Oraibi,  although  a  thou- 
sand people  are  looking  intently  at  the  openings  of 
the  two  kivas.  Suddenly  from  the  one  nearest  the 
Tolchaco  party  up  the  ladder  the  chief  of  the  An- 
telope priests  appears.  He  holds  the  rattle  box  in 
his  hand  and  is  followed  by  the  eleven  priests,  the 
last  one  a  lad  twelve  years  old.  The  line  twists 
through  the  fringe  of  visitors,  as  oblivious  of  any 
onlookers  as  if  they  were  going  through  this  cere- 
mony five  hundred  years  ago  when  »ot  a  white  face 
was  dreamed  of  and  when  the  Hopi  was  doing  ex- 
actly what  old  Thisdoa  and  his  grandson  are  doing 
to-day. 

Then  from  out  the  other  kiva  the  stately  snake 
priests  emerge,  a  group  of  twelve  old  men  each  bear- 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  279 

ing  the  rattle  which  contains  the  grains  of  corn. 
The  incessant  pattering  of  the  rattles  is  the  only 
sound  heard  in  the  plaza  until  the  soft  moccasined 
feet  reach  the  board  over  the  hole  in  front  of  the  kisi. 
The  thump,  thump,  thump  of  the  feet  pound  over 
the  board  to  call  the  attention  of  the  underworld 
gods  to  the  needs  of  their  children  up  here.  The 
sandy  plaza  is  traversed  and  the  two  lines  of  priests 
circle  about,  finally  stopping  in  front  of  the  kisi,  fac- 
ing one  another ;  then  rises  the  "  wo,  wo,  wo,  wo," 
the  guttural  chant.  The  Hopis  have  been  for  many 
years  a  peaceful  people,  but  this  monotonous  chant, 
rising  occasionally  into  a  swelling  crescendo  howl 
sends  delightful  cold  shivers  down  the  backs  of  the 
visitors,  and  even  Elijah  Clifford  says  he  wouldn't 
want  to  meet  that  howl  unexpectedly  around  the 
corner.  Then  the  priests  file  past  the  kisi  one  by 
one,  stoop  by  the  opening  and  receive  from  the  old 
warrior  priest  sitting  within,  a  snake.  Each  one 
raises  his  snake  to  his  mouth  and  holds  it  there  be- 
tween his  teeth  as  he  walks  about  the  plaza  accom- 
panied by  his  hugger  or  companion.  Suddenly  the 
snakes  are  released  and  thrown  down  upon  the  sand. 
They  make  swift  and  desperate  efforts  to  escape 
but  are  caught  up  again  with  such  rapidity  of  move- 
ment that  the  closest  attention  paid  by  the  tourists 
can  not  discover  how  it  is  done.  Round  and  round 
the  procession  of  twenty-four  moves.  Out  from  the 
houses  near  the  snake  kiva  a  group  of  girls  and 
women  suddenly  run.  They  stop  at  the  edge  of 
the  plaza  near  the  Tolchaco  party  and  scatter  the 


280  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

sacred  corn  meal  on  the  ground.  Navajo  horse- 
men dismount  and  pick  up  pinches  of  this  sacred 
meal  to  put  in  their  pouches  for  good  luck.  The 
twenty-four  priests  with  their  snakes  twisting  in 
their  sinewy  brown  hands  turn  together  and  with  a 
common  movement  all  dart  up  to  the  place  where 
the  meal  lies.  They  circle  about  the  spot.  Paul 
raises  Helen  up  a  little  higher  so  that  she  can  throw 
a  horrified  gaze  into  that  astonishing  scene.  For  a 
moment  the  only  thing  she  and  the  rest  can  see  is 
a  squirming,  hissing  heap  of  snakes,  apparently 
tangled  together  in  an  angry  mass.  And  then  the 
twenty-four  priests  shoulder  one  another  as  they 
stoop  and  with  both  hands  grab  up  as  many  snakes 
as  they  can  hold  in  their  fingers,  and  suddenly  sep- 
arating, turn  and  face  towards  the  edge  of  the  rock, 
running  with  all  their  might,  thrusting  the  snakes 
into  the  faces  of  any  unlucky  tourist  or  visitor  who 
may  be  in  the  way. 

There  is  a  rush  for  the  edge  of  the  rock.  Those 
who  line  up  there  see  the  lean  figures  of  the  priests 
leaping  down  the  wild  trail.  Their  forms  can 
hardly  be  distinguished  as  they  reach  the  desert  and 
are  dimly  seen  to  be  kneeling  in  prayer  over  the 
snakes  as  they  let  them  go,  down  to  the  great  plumed 
snake  to  beseech  him  to  send  rain,  rain,  rain,  on 
the  corn  and  melons  of  his  children  up  here. 

The  rest  of  the  ceremony  is  purification.  The 
priests  come  panting  and  sweating  up  the  rock. 
On  the  edge  of  the  snake  priests'  kiva  the  women 
bring  out  huge  jars  of  mysterious  brown  liquid. 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  *81 

The  panting  figures  kneel  there  in  the  now  desert 
twilight  and  drink  great  draughts  of  this  liquor. 
Kneeling  about  over  the  rock  they  disgorge  from 
their  mouths  what  they  have  been  drinking.  The 
merciful  darkness  is  closing  in  swiftly  over  this 
disgusting  scene,  participated  in,  however,  in  all 
reverence  by  the  priests  and  gazed  upon  in  astonish- 
ing seriousness  by  the  spectators,  for  is  it  not  all  a 
part  of  the  painful  crucifying  of  the  flesh  that  these 
poor  creatures  have  been  subjecting  themselves  to 
for  centuries  in  their  blind  but  constant  desire 
to  find  God,  the  God  of  the  rain,  the  rain,  the 
rain. 

Gradually  the  priests  disappear  down  into  the 
kiva  where  a  feast  has  been  prepared  for  them  by 
the  women.  The  great  festival,  which  will  not  oc- 
cur again  at  Oraibi  for  two  years,  is  over. 

Paul  sees  Masters  standing  by  him.  In  the  dim 
light  he  realises  with  a  start  as  he  looks  up,  that  the 
tears  are  rolling  down  over  Masters's  face. 

"  Oh,  the  people !  How  long  will  they  seek  after 
God  in  these  ways !  Oh,  for  the  power  to  open  their 
eyes  to  see  him  as  He  is ! " 

Through  the  growing  darkness  groups  of  tourists 
and  visitors  pass,  choking  the  narrow  paths  between 
the  houses,  crowding  into  the  trail  down  to  the 
wagons  at  the  foot  of  the  rock.  Among  the  con- 
fusion of  chattering  voices  and  exclamations  one 
shrill  voice  of  a  girl  penetrates  through  to  the  hear- 
ing of  Masters  and  Paul. 

"Wasn't   it   the   greatest   thing,  you   ever   saw? 


282  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

and  oh,  how  picturesque!  Those  people,  those  girls 
on  the  houses !  What  a  pity  it  would  be  to  spoil  it 
by  trying  to  civilise  these  nature  children ! " 

Masters  looked  at  Paul  grimly. 

"Yes,  it  would  be  a  great  pity,  wouldn't  it?  I 
wish  that  girl  could  stay  here  one  winter  and  enjoy 
the  picturesqueness  of  a  Hopi  Indian  girl's  life.  I 
wonder  if  she  has  any  little  thought  of  the  real  life 
of  these  *  nature  children'  ?  Of  its  misery,  its  im- 
purity, its  dreadful  sin  and  superstition  and  dark- 
ness; its  infant  mortality;  its  pain  and  disease  due 
to  the  absence  of  any  sanitary  or  medical  skill. 
But  most  of  all  its  ignorance  of  Jesus  Christ  and 
his  love.  '  Picturesque ! '  I  grant  you  it  is.  But 
Christianity  would  not  destroy  anything  worth 
keeping.  For  centuries  these  '  nature  children  '  have 
walked  in  darkness.  Are  they  not  entitled,  like  that 
white  girl,  to  the  light  of  life?  And  did  you  see 
Talavenka  when  her  father  reached  into  the  kisi  for 
the  snake?  " 

"  No,"  said  Paul,  "  I  must  confess  my  eyes  were 
on  the  priests,  not  the  spectators." 

"  Talavenka  was  crying  all  through  the  ceremony. 
Her  father  can  not  understand  her  new  life.  The 
girl  stands  alone  in  the  midst  of  this  superstition. 
What  will  become  of  her?  The  estrangement  in  the 
family  is  one  of  the  most  painful  things  I  ever  knew. 
Her  mother  Schewingoiashchi  is  the  only  one  who 
seems  kind  to  her.  At  times  I  think  Schewingoiash- 
chi is  not  far  from  the  Kingdom  herself.  She  does 
not  object  to  Talavenka's  baptism.  We  have  talked 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  283 

of  that.  It  will  be  a  part  of  our  service  to-night. 
I  must  go  and  get  ready." 

Paul  and  Esther  and  the  rest  of  the  party  went 
to  Talavenka's  house  for  the  evening  meal.  Mas- 
ters, who  was  of  the  old  school  of  preachers,  they 
learned  afterwards  had  spent  the  hour  before  the 
service  out  on  the  edge  of  the  rock  a  little  past  the 
mission  chapel,  praying  in  the  darkness  for  the 
people  of  Oraibi. 

Helen  was  very  eager  to  go  to  see  Talavenka 
baptised.  During  the  afternoon  she  had  noticed 
the  girl's  grief  and  had  been  deeply  touched  by  it. 
They  were  of  the  same  age,  she  had  learned  from 
Mrs.  Masters.  The  few  words  she  spoke  in  En- 
glish during  the  midday  meal  had  revealed  a  quiet 
dignity  and  a  genuine  Christian  faith.  Already 
Helen's  romantic  temperament  was  constructing  a 
plan  to  have  Talavenka  leave  Oraibi  and  finish  her 
education  in  Milton  academy. 

"  We  can  carry  you  over  to  the  chapel  all  right," 
her  father  said.  "Where  are  those  young  men?  I 
haven't  seen  Van  Shaw  or  his  friends  all  the  after- 
noon." 

"  They  were  there,  I  saw  them,"  said  Walter. 

"  I  saw  them  on  the  other  side  of  the  plaza,"  said 
Bauer  who  had  not  lost  sight  of  Van  Shaw  during 
the  afternoon  and  had  wondered  more  than  once 
why  he  was  avoiding  Helen.  He  had  had  his  talk 
with  Mrs.  Douglas  and  had  been  tormented  all 
through  that  ancient  prayer  for  rain  with  questions 
as  to  his  wisdom  in  telling  some  things  to  Helen's 


284  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

mother.  But  he  was  not  given  to  doubt  concern- 
ing his  motives  and  in  this  particular  instance  he 
had  no  hesitation  over  his  own  absolutely  clean  and 
disinterested  motive.  He  wanted  Helen  to  escape 
the  horror  of  a  union  with  a  degenerate  mind  and 
heart  as  he  knew  they  existed  in  Van  Shaw's  char- 
acter and  his  own  feeling  for  her  did  not  occupy  a 
prominent  place  in  his  motive.  Of  that  much  he 
was  sure  and  it  helped  him  somewhat  to  get  through 
one  of  the  most  trying  experiences  of  his  life. 

Bauer  went  on  to  say  to  Mr.  Douglas  that  he 
had  seen  Van  Shaw  and  his  two  friends  go  down  the 
trail  to  their  wagons  and  had  not  seen  them  come 
back  up  the  rock.  So  Paul  and  Walter,  Clifford 
and  Felix  took  Helen  over  to  the  mission  chapel  to- 
wards which  various  groups  could  be  seen  moving 
through  the  unlighted  spaces  of  Oraibi's  crooked 
and  narrow  windings. 

The  chapel  had  been  built  by  a  small  missionary 
society  ambitious  to  signalise  its  existence  by  doing 
something  desperately  hard  in  a  corner  of  the  world 
where  no  missionary  work  had  ever  been  done.  The 
missionary  in  charge  had  laboured  several  years  with 
that  marvellous  patience  and  persistence  which  noth- 
ing but  the  history  of  missions  in  this  old  world  has 
ever  recorded.  And  as  a  result  of  his  work 
Talavenka  had  come  into  the  light.  She  had  spent 
two  winters  at  the  mission  in  Tolchaco  and  Masters 
had  shaped  and  enlarged  the  faith  that  first  had  be- 
gun to  glow  on  the  grey  rock  of  Oraibi.  And  the 
missionary  had  been  planning  to  have  Masters  hold 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  285 

this  special  service  and  baptise  Talavenka  from  the 
time  he  heard  of  his  coming  up  to  the  snake  dance. 

Masters  found  a  place  on  one  end  of  the  little 
platform  for  Helen's  cot  where  she  lay  propped  up 
in  comfortable  fashion.  The  room  was  very  small 
and  it  filled  up  rapidly.  When  it  would  hold  no 
more  it  is  doubtful  if  any  man  with  a  message  ever 
faced  a  more  mixed  or  astonishing  audience. 

There  were  native  Hopis,  old  men  and  women  who 
did  not  understand  a  word  of  English.  Navajo 
visitors,  men  who  never  appeared  at  Oraibi  except 
once  in  two  years.  Paul  recognised  one  man  whom 
Masters  had  pointed  out  one  day  at  Tolchaco  as  a 
notorious  gambler  and  horse  trader,  known  all  over 
the  painted  desert  as  "  ladaka  "  the  gambler ;  there 
were  traders  from  the  different  government  posts; 
a  few  teachers  from  the  government  schools ;  a  bunch 
of  cowboys  from  Flagstaff;  half  a  dozen  Apaches 
who  had  come  up  to  Oraibi  from  an  encampment 
near  the  Bottomless  Pits;  a  dozen  tourists  from  a 
half  dozen  different  cities  in  the  east  attracted  from 
tourist  curiosity;  three  interpreters,  one  of  whom 
happened  to  be  in  government  employ  and  had  been 
caught  at  Oraibi  and  detained  there  by  an  accident 
to  his  team  on  the  way  to  Shungapavi.  Masters 
knew  him  and  asked  him  to  come  in  and  help  at  the 
service. 

Besides  this  miscellaneous  and  polygot  audience 
inside  the  room,  Helen  soon  became  aware  of  nearly 
as  many  more  spectators  and  listeners  outside  the 
building  crowded  about  the  open  windows.  The 


286  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

night  was  warm  and  still.  The  chapel  had  three 
windows  on  each  side,  and  two  at  the  rear  behind  the 
platform,  and  at  each  opening  dark  faces  of  various 
nationalities  grouped  and  peered  in  with  stoical  or 
wondering  interest.  After  the  service  had  begun 
Helen  suddenly  became  aware  of  the  presence  of 
Van  Shaw  and  his  two  friends.  They  had  evidently 
finished  their  supper  and  camp  work  and  come  back 
up  the  rock  to  be  present  at  the  chapel  service  but 
had  been  too  late  to  get  inside.  Helen  felt  Van 
Shaw's  gaze  directed  constantly  at  herself.  He  had 
secured  a  position  close  up  to  the  second  window 
from  the  platform.  Helen  again  had  that  curious 
blending  of  anger  and  exultation,  of  shame  and 
gratified  vanity  as  if  there  were  forces  at  work  in 
her  at  war  with  one  another  tempting  and  an- 
tagonistic, attractive  and  repellant.  But  after  one 
look  had  been  exchanged  between  her  and  Van  Shaw 
she  changed  her  position  on  the  cot  so  that  she  was 
partly  hidden  from  him  by  a  lamp  which  stood  on 
one  corner  of  the  little  parlour  organ  of  the  plat- 
form. 

Do  you  know  of  any  greater  heroes  than  the 
heroes  of  the  cross?  These  are  the  undaunted,  un- 
terrified,  passion-filled  souls  of  the  earth.  Masters 
personified  the  very  spirit  of  aggressive,  human,  lov- 
ing Christianity.  That  strange  room  full  of  human- 
ity would  have  appalled  anyone  but  a  real  soul-hun- 
gry man.  What  could  anyone  do  with  it?  Century 
old  vices  and  superstitions,  brutal  contempt  for  any- 
thing but  coarse  pleasures,  stolid  indifference  to 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  287 

God,  measureless  egotism  and  age-long  selfishness 
looked  at  him  from  the  faces  in  the  room  and  at  the 
windows,  from  "  ladaka  "  and  the  wrinkled  Hopis, 
from  the  sentimental  tourist  girl  and  Van  Shaw  and 
his  two  friends,  from  the  dull  visaged  Apaches  and 
the  smirking  traders,  one  of  whom,  to  Master's  own 
knowledge,  had  for  years  been  cheating  the  rug 
weavers  all  the  way  from  Black  Bear  Canon  to  the 
Spanish  Peaks. 

And  yet  for  some  reason  or  a  number  of  reasons, 
these  humans  were  all  here  in  front  of  him  and  as  he 
looked  at  them,  Masters  had  soul  hunger  for  them. 
He  loved  the  multitude.  And  it  never  entered  his 
simple  thought  that  anything  else  was  possible  but 
that  in  the  long  run  they  would  all  have  to  go  down 
before  the  conquering  Carpenter's  Son.  Yes,  even 
old  "  ladaka."  He  would  some  day  see  the  light 
and  he  would  walk  and  run  all  the  way  from  Crested 
Buttes  to  the  Bottomless  Pit  and  throw  his  da'aka 
in  there  and  kneel  at  Jesus  feet  and  call  him  Lord. 
Have  not  the  peoples  of  the  earth  been  doing  that 
all  through  the  ages?  Is  not  the  miracle  of  regen- 
eration greatest  of  all  miracles  since  Jesus  lived? 
Is  anything  too  hard  for  God? 

So  Masters's  simple  unswerving  faith  spoke  that 
night.  He  told  in  the  simplest  possible  way  the 
story  of  the  cross.  The  old,  old  story  that  is  chang- 
ing the  history  of  the  world  every  day.  The  old 
story  that  is  not  afraid  of  modern  philosophy,  nor 
antique  prejudice  nor  even  the  scoffing  and  sneering 
of  Athens  and  the  jeers  of  Vanity  Fair  and  the  com- 


288  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

placent  self  satisfaction  of  the  modern  phar- 
isee. 

Then  he  told  Talavenka's  story  as  he  knew  she 
would  be  willing  to  have  it  told.  The  Hopi  girl 
had  sat  on  the  front  seat  close  to  the  platform. 
She  was  dressed  in  white  and  Helen  wondered  with 
herself  more  than  once  if  Talavenka  was  like  other 
girls  and  really  knew  or  understood  how  marvellous 
was  her  black  hair  and  her  perfect  coloured  skin. 
And  then  almost  as  if  someone  had  asked  her,  Helen 
asked  herself  if  Talavenka  had  ever  known  a  lover 
and  if  the  great  romance  of  life  could  come  to  her 
now  that  she  had  cut  herself  off  from  her  people,  and 
the  swift  runner  in  the  corn  dance  might  no  longer 
look  for  her  to  come  out  in  the  grey  morning  and 
with  the  other  maidens  snatch  from  his  arms  the  cool 
dew  washed  corn  leaves  and  from  his  glowing  eye  the 
message  which  is  the  same  between  youths  and 
maidens  the  world  over. 

But  Talavenka  was  conscious  herself  of  no  other 
thought  here  to-night  in  the  mission  chapel  at  Oraibi. 
Masters  spoke  to  her  of  her  faith  and  asked  her  a 
few  questions.  The  girl's  face  shone  with  intelligent 
affection  for  her  Redeemer  and  then  the  missionary 
rose  and  held  the  baptismal  bowl.  Talavenka 
kneeled  between  him  and  Masters,  Elijah  Clifford 
with  the  tear  in  his  eye  standing  by  Miss  Gray  as 
if  naturally  their  common  interest  in  Talavenka  and 
knowledge  of  her  history  made  their  mutual  near- 
ness a  natural  thing.  Masters  touched  Talavenka's 
forehead  with  the  water  and  said  in  a  voice  that 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  289 

trembled  for  the  first  time  that  night,  "  TalaVenka, 
I  baptise  thee  because  of  thy  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus, 
into  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son  and  of 
the  Holy  Ghost.  Amen." 

All  through  the  service  Masters  had  spoken 
through  one  or  the  other  of  the  interpreters.  In 
turn  the  Hopis,  the  Navajos,  and  the  Apaches  had 
heard  of  Jesus  and  what  he  had  said  had  been 
listened  to  in  some  instances  with  evident  eagerness. 
But  the  baptism  of  Talavenka  impressed  all  alike. 
Even  the  stolid  imagination  of  the  trader  from  Red 
Stone  Tanks  could  understand  a  little  of  the 
significance  of  what  was  going  on  there  that  night 
when  the  first  Hopi  maiden  was  being  baptised  into 
a  religion  which  her  ancestors  for  centuries  had 
known  nothing  about. 

They  sang  "  My  Faith  looks  up  to  Thee,"  and 
after  a  prayer  by  Miss  Gray,  which  was  so  tender 
it  made  Helen  cry,  the  meeting  was  over. 

The  people  went  out  slowly.  Those  who  knew 
Talavenka  came  up  to  see  her.  Her  mother  had 
sat  still  as  if  graven  there  all  through  the  evening. 
Suddenly  she  drew  her  shawl  over  her  head  and 
rose  and  went  out.  Talavenka  trembled  as  she 
watched  her.  "  My  mother !  "  was  all  she  said.  It 
was  a  whole  volume  of  longing  for  her  redemption. 
Helen  heard  her  and  held  out  her  hand  to  her  as  she 
stood  there  near  the  little  platform.  And  the  two 
girls,  one  born  in  Christian  civilisation,  nurtured  in 
soft  and  comfortable  ways,  and  the  other  who  first 
drew  breath  in  a  dark  and  filthy  corner  of  a  stone 


290  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

hut  on  this  treeless  rock,  drew  near  together  and 
the  Christian  faith  of  each  swiftly  bridged  over  all 
the  centuries  of  difference  in  matters  of  language, 
customs  and  ceremonies.  For  is  it  not  beautifully 
true  that  when  Jesus  enters  a  life  it  becomes  a  part 
of  all  life  everywhere,  and  there  is  no  longer  any 
Greek  nor  Jew,  neither  Barbarian,  Scythian,  bond- 
man or  freeman,  but  all  are  one. 

At  that  instant  Van  Shaw  and  his  friends  came 
down  the  aisle  of  the  little  room.  They  had  crowded 
in  as  soon  as  enough  people  had  gone  out.  They 
came  up  now,  greeting  the  other  tourists,  some  of 
whom  they  had  met  for  the  first  time  that  afternoon. 

Van  Shaw,  however,  seemed  especially  anxious  to 
reach  the  spot  where  Mrs.  Douglas  was  standing 
talking  with  one  of  the  government  teachers  from 
Kean's  Canon.  In  passing  one  of  the  tourists 
who  was  in  the  middle  of  the  aisle,  Van  Shaw  came 
face  to  face  with  Bauer,  and  to  Bauer's  tremendous 
astonishment  Van  Shaw  said  at  once  in  a  threaten- 
ing tone — which,  however,  he  guarded  so  as  not  to 
be  heard  by  anyone  else: 

"  I  understand  you  have  been  meddling  In  my 
affairs.  I  consider  it  a  mighty  sneaking  thing  for 
you  to  do  and  I  want  you  to  understand  I 
won't " 

Bauer  recovered  his  composure  quickly  as  he  in- 
terrupted Van  Shaw. 

"  We  can't  very  well  discuss  this  matter  in  here." 

"  I  want  a  word  with  Mrs.  Douglas  first,"  said 
Van  Shaw. 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  291 

But  Bauer  stepped  in  front  of  him  and  said : 

"  I  think  you  had  better  have  a  word  with  me 
first." 

Van  Shaw  looked  at  him  uncertainly  and  then 
turned  and  walked  out  of  the  chapel.  Bauer  fol- 
lowed him  immediately. 

The  only  light  out  on  the  rock  was  starlight. 
Darkness  covered  the  blurred  outline  of  Oraibi's 
houses,  with  only  an  occasional  point  of  light  here 
and  there,  or  the  sudden  glow  from  some  kiva  as 
the  opening  reflected  the  fire  at  the  bottom. 

Van  Shaw  walked  slowly  as  if  by  appointment  out 
to  the  edge  of  the  rock.  When  he  stopped,  Bauer 
was  close  by  him.  In  the  mist  far  below  a  red 
glow  marked  the  camp  by  the  Oraibi  Wash.  The 
night  was  very  still  and  they  were  almost  near 
enough  to  the  chapel  to  distinguish  the  sound  of 
voices  within. 


CHAPTER    XVI 

XTOW  that  we  are  here,"  said  Van  Shaw,  "I 
•*•  ^  simply  want  to  repeat  what  I  said.  You  don't 
butt  into  my  affairs.  Keep  out.  Coleman  over- 
heard a  part  of  what  you  told  Mrs.  Douglas  to-day 
while  you  were  near  the  cemetery  rock.  He  was 
on  the  other  side  of  it.  What  you  said  may  be  true, 
but  I  consider  it  a  sneaking  thing  and  I  won't  stand 
for  it." 

Bauer  was  still.  In  the  first  place  he  had  never 
faced  such  a  situation  and  in  the  darkness  there  he 
swiftly  recurred  to  his  talk  with  Mrs.  Douglas.  He 
had  found  her  already  prepared  for  a  part  of  what 
he  had  to  say.  Esther,  sensitively  intelligent  in 
anything  relating  to  Helen's  welfare,  had  not  seen 
Van  Shaw  a  moment  before  she  felt  a  repulsion  for 
him  amounting  to  horror.  What  Bauer  told  her 
from  his  own  knowledge  of  Van  Shaw's  immoral  life 
in  Burrton  roused  all  her  mother  instincts  to  pro- 
tect her  child  from  a  fate  worse  than  death  if  she 
should  marry  a  man  who  had  already  fallen.  She 
shared  in  the  fullest  degree  with  Bauer's  deep  fear 
that  Helen  might,  in  her  desire  for  the  soft  and 
beautiful  things  of  wealth,  risk  her  very  life  itself, 
not  because  she  knew  she  was  doing  it,  but  partly 
through  ignorance  of  the  real  character  of  the  man 

292 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  293 

who  had  the  unblushing  selfishness  to  ask  a  pure 
girl  like  Helen  to  accept  him  as  a  husband,  knowing 
himself  to  be  what  he  was. 

And  Bauer,  measuring  in  his  slow  but  not  stupid 
fashion  all  the  consequences  of  his  action  in  warning 
Mrs.  Douglas,  knowing  clearly  the  code  of  morals 
governing  men  like  Van  Shaw  and  the  wicked  and 
unchristian  standard  of  even  so-called  Christian  so- 
ciety in  condemning  what  it  called  "  telling  on  oth- 
ers," nevertheless  went  forward  to  do  what  seemed 
to  him  to  be  only  necessary  in  the  name  of  common 
honour  and  decency. 

The  fact  that  Van  Shaw  had  found  out  what  he 
had  done  did  not  disturb  him  greatly.  The  only 
thing  that  troubled  him  now  was  to  hold  himself 
sufficiently  in  hand.  He  had  never  hated  anyone  in 
his  life  except  this  rich  man's  son  and  he  had  been 
slow  to  entertain  that  feeling  for  him.  But  it  had 
grown  like  a  tropical  plant  within  the  last  three 
days.  And  all  the  old  Teutonic  rage  latent  in  him 
was  at  the  boiling  point  whenever  he  thought  of  Van 
Shaw  and  Helen  together.  He  said  to  himself  there 
in  the  darkness  that  if  there  had  been  light  enough 
to  see  Van  Shaw's  sneering  face  he  would  have  struck 
it.  He  remembered  hearing  his  own  father  say  once 
that  one  of  his  ancestors  at  Lausbrencken  had 
choked  the  life  out  of  a  family  enemy,  using  only 
one  hand  around  the  man's  throat.  He  was  so  afraid 
of  himself  now  that  he  involuntarily  stepped  back 
away  from  Van  Shaw  and  Van  Shaw  noted  it  and 
put  the  action  down  to  cowardice  or  fear. 


294  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

"  Well,  are  you  going  to  keep  out  of  my  affairs  ? 
Is  it  any  business  of  yours  whether  I  try  to  make 

friends  with  the  Douglases?  Or  perhaps "  he 

suddenly  changed  his  tone  as  if  a  new  thought  had 
broken  in  on  his  mind.  "  Look  here,  Bauer.  Per- 
haps— well,  maybe  you  don't  understand I  am 

going  to  marry  Miss  Douglas ! " 

"  What !  "  Bauer  cried  out.  He  stepped  nearer 
Van  Shaw  and  Van  Shaw  stepped  back,  nearer  the 
edge  of  the  rock. 

"  Well,"  Van  Shaw  laughed.  "  That  is,  as  soon 
as  she  says  yes,  I  am.  My  intentions  are  all  right. 
But — "  and  his  accustomed  mood  quickly  reas- 
serted itself,  "  I  warn  you  to  keep  out.  Leave  my 
affairs  alone.  A  fellow  whose  father  and  mother 
have  done  what  yours  have,  isn't  in  the  best  position 
to  throw  stones  at  other  people." 

Felix  Bauer  long  years  afterwards  confessed  to 
the  dearest  friend  he  had,  that  in  that  moment  he 
had  the  nearest  approach  to  the  thought  of  murder 
and  hate  he  ever  knew.  But  before  he  could  reply 
to  Van  Shaw's  brutality  he  saw  him  stagger  and  reel 
and  throw  up  his  arms  on  the  edge  of  the  rock.  He 
heard  him  cry  out,  "  For  God's  sake,  Bauer !  "  and 
then  he  fell  backward  and  disappeared  over  the  cliff. 

For  a  second  Bauer  stood  in  his  place  smitten 
with  horror.  He  was  totally  ignorant  of  the  char- 
acter of  the  ground  where  Van  Shaw  had  been  stand- 
ing and  of  what  lay  below.  Evidently  a  shelving 
piece  of  the  rotten  sandstone  had  broken  off.  How 
much  of  the  edge  was  dangerous  it  was  impossible 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  295 

to  tell  there  in  the  dark.  He  uttered  one  loud  cry 
of  "  Help !  "  and  then  flung  himself  down  full  length 
and  dragged  himself  up  to  the  place  where  Van  Shaw 
had  disappeared. 

Just  as  he  reached  the  edge,  he  heard  fragments 
of  the  rock  go  rattling  down  and  a  sound  as  of  a 
heavy  body  falling  somewhere.  He  peered  over 
fearfully.  He  shouted  again.  He  looked,  straining 
down,  and  it  seemed  to  him  that  about  twenty  feet 
below  he  could  see  a  huddled-up  body  lying  on  a 
projecting  ledge. 

And  then  Felix  Bauer  did  as  brave  or  as  foolhardy 
a  thing  as  anyone  ever  did.  It  was  partly  to  punish 
himself  for  the  murderous  feeling  he  had  entertained 
a  moment  before  that  he  now  said,  "  Good  God !  I 
must  save  him  now.  Help  me,  God !  Help  me !  " 

He  swung  about  on  the  edge  of  the  ragged  rock 
and  let  his  feet  down.  He  felt  a  projecting  knob 
of  something,  and  then  for  a  sickening  second  he 
paused  and  shouted  again  and  then  he  let  go,  hug- 
ging the  face  of  the  cliff.  As  he  went  down,  he 
began  to  realise  thankfully  that  the  cliff  was  rough 
and  irregular.  His  hands  were  running  blood,  but 
he  did  not  know  it.  As  he  felt  resting  places  for 
his  feet,  or  anything  for  his  hands  to  clutch,  he 
sobbed,  "  God  help  me !  God  help  me !  " 

He  was  down  at  last  near  enough  to  see  that  Vari 
Shaw  had  fallen  in  a  bent-over  position  on  a  shelf 
of  rock,  a  little  more  than  wide  enough  to  hold  his 
body.  He  called  to  him  but  received  no  answer.  Aii 
last  he  was  near  enough  to  drop  down  on  the  ledge 


296  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

but  as  he  was  about  to  do  so,  Van  Shaw,  with  a 
groan  of  pain,  turned  over,  and  began  to  roll  towards 
the  edge. 

Bauer  desperately  let  go  of  everything,  fell  in  a 
lump  and  snatched  at  Van  Shaw.  He  caught  one 
arm  and,  panting,  held  onto  it.  The  rest  of  Van 
Shaw's  body  was  hanging  over  the  side  of  the  ledge, 
and  even  in  that  critical  moment  Bauer  recalled  his 
first  view  of  Oraibi  rock  as  the  wagons  had  come  up 
from  the  Oraibi  Wash  and  the  Tolchaco  party  had 
scanned  through  the  field  glass  the  inaccessible  sides. 
But  he  was  on  the  opposite  side  now  and  how  far  it 
was  below  the  place  where  he  now  was  he  could  not 
tell.  Only  he  knew  it  must  be  a  killing  distance 
down  there  in  the  dark  that  seemed  to  be  reaching 
up  black,  heavy  hands  pulling  at  Van  Shaw's  un- 
conscious body,  pulling  at  it  harder  and  harder  every 
second.  He  could  feel  himself  slipping  down  across 
the  smooth  ledge  which  offered  no  place  for  his  slid- 
ing feet.  He  was  using  his  last  strength,  but  every 
second  it  seemed  impossible.  His  lungs  were  burst- 
ing. The  red  taste  of  hot  blood  was  in  his  mouth; 
he  had  a  confused  thought  that  he  could  let  go  of 
Van  Shaw's  arm  any  time,  but  he  did  not  let  go. 
He  was  slipping,  slipping  down,  pulled  inch  by  inch 
by  those  strong  black  hands  of  the  dark  down  there, 
but  still  he  clung  and  sobbed  "  God,  save  us ! " 

And  then  Elijah  Clifford's  voice  called  to  him. 

"  I'm  coming,  Bauer,  I'm  coming." 

The  voice  gave  Felix  one  more  ounce  of  strength. 
He  exerted  it,  was  conscious  that  someone  was  down 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  297 

there  with  him  farther  off  at  the  side  of  the  ledge, 
then  his  hold  loosened,  everything  turned  black  and 
he  did  not  know  any  more. 

When  he  came  to  himself  he  was  lying  on  one  of 
the  seats  of  the  little  chapel.  Anxious  white, 
frightened  faces  were  all  about  him.  He  was  dimly 
aware  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Douglas  and  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Masters  and  Elijah  Clifford  and  Miss  Gray  and 
Helen  and  a  group  of  tourists,  one  of  whom  he  heard 
Mr.  Douglas  call  "  doctor."  He  seemed  to  feel  con- 
scious of  another  body  that  was  lying  on  a  bench 
near  him,  the  body  of  Van  Shaw,  and  as  it  stirred 
and  groaned,  he  had  an  undefined  feeling  of  thank- 
fulness that  he  was  still  alive  and  that  no  murder 
had  been  committed.  And  then  the  hot  taste  of 
blood  came  into  his  mouth  and  he  knew  his  hemor- 
rhage had  come  on  again. 

He  was  too  weak  to  talk  and  felt  irritated  at  the 
hubbub  about  him.  But  cots  were  soon  provided 
and  he  and  Van  Shaw  and  Helen  were  carried  down 
the  trail  to  their  tents,  where  a  curious  and  inter- 
ested group  soon  gathered.  Van  Shaw  had  broken 
his  shoulder  and  one  leg.  The  doctor  was  not  cer- 
tain about  other  and  internal  injuries.  But  Van 
Shaw  was  conscious  and  unless  something  unfore- 
seen took  place,  he  was  in  a  fair  way  to  recover. 

Everyone  was  excited  and  sleep  was  out  of  the 
question.  So  when  everything  possible  had  been 
done  for  Bauer  and  Van  Shaw,  Elijah  Clifford  told 
what  he  knew  of  the  accident  and  in  his  own  way  re- 
lated his  share  in  the  evening's  adventures. 


298  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

"  You  see,  I  had  just  lighted  our  lantern  and  had 
stepped  out  of  the  chapel  to  light  our  folks  down 
the  trail  when  I  heard  Bauer's  cry  for  help.  I 
hadn't  seen  him  go  out  and  I  didn't  know  what  he 
was  doing  out  there,  but  it's  always  been  a  rule  of 
the  Mission  when  anyone  yells  '  help,'  to  run  in  that 
direction.  I  fell  over  an  old  standard  oil  can  and 
broke  my  lantern  and  my  shins.  And  I  guess  while 
I  was  down,  Bauer  was  just  getting  over  the  edge 
of  the  rock. 

"  Say !  Talk  about  recklessness,  I  take  it  Herr 
Felix  Bauer  has  us  all  beat  to  a-run-down-the-trail- 
and-back.  You  strangers  from  New  York,  how 
would  you  like  to  back  off  the  top  of  the  Flat  Iron 
Building,  hang  onto  the  coping  with  your  fingers 
for  a  second  and  then  let  go,  trusting  to  strike  a 
window  ledge  or  something  between  the  soles  of  your 
shoes  and  Madison  Square?  Well,  that's  just  what 
this  tuberculosis  son  of  Germany  did,  and  if  it 
doesn't  knock  all  the  snake  traditions  of  this  old  rock 
into  piki  bread  crumbs  then  I  have  lost  my  way  and 
forgotten  where  I  started  from." 

"  How  about  yourself?  "  asked  one  of  the  New 
York  tourists.  "  Didn't  you  go  down  the  same 
place?" 

In  the  light  of  the  camp  fire  it  was  not  easy  to 
see  that  Elijah  Clifford  actually  blushed.  But  he 
did,  and  Miss  Gray  sat  near  enough  to  note  it.  If 
Elijah  Clifford  had  not  been  so  embarrassed  by  the 
New  York  man's  question  he  might  possibly,  if  he 
had  been  looking  in  Miss  Gray's  direction,  have  seen 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  299 

a  new  look  on  her  face.  A  look  of  shy  Admiration 
that  belongs  to  the  border  land  of  another  county 
called  Affection,  which  is  a  near  by  state  to  another 
called  Love.  But  Clifford  hastened  to  say: 

"  Oh,  I  had  a  light  to  go  down  with.  When  I  fell, 
I  broke  the  glass,  but  lucky  the  light  did  not  go  out, 
so  I  could  see  where  I  was  going.  And  when  I  got 
down,  there  was  Bauer  hanging  on  to  Van  Shaw's 
arm  in  the  most  affectionate  manner,  as  if  he  didn't 
want  to  have  him  leave  before  his  visit  was  over.  I 
hadn't  more  than  time  to  get  my  foot  braced  on  the 
lantern  or  something,  when  Bauer  turned  his  friend 
over  to  me  and  for  a  minute  or  two  he  was  on  my 
hands,  but  by  that  time  the  folks  up  on  top  had  let 
down  some  ropes  and  we  soon  got  everybody  up  all 
right." 

"Elijah,"  said  Mr.  Masters  reproachfully, 
"  why  don't  you  go  into  the  details  ?  You  know 
that  when  Mr.  Douglas  and  I  climbed  down  on  the 
ropes,  you  were  almost  over  the  edge  with  Van 
Shaw's  body." 

"  Well,  that's  the  most  slippery  piece  of  rock  I 
ever  felt,"  said  Clifford,  and  again  he  failed  to  note 
a  movement  on  the  part  of  Miss  Gray.  When  Mas- 
ters had  said  that  Clifford  had  almost  gone  over  the 
edge  of  the  ledge  with  Van  Shaw's  body,  she  had 
put  out  the  hand  nearest  Clifford,  as  if  to  hold  him 
back. 

"  Yes,"  said  Clifford,  "  that  ledge  is  smooth  and 
no  mistake.  If  any  more  folks  are  going  to  fall 
over  onto  it,  I  think  the  Commissioners  in  Oraibi 


300  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

ought  to  drive  some  nails  into  it,  or  else  build  a  neat 
little  concrete  wall  around  it.  There  were  times 
while  I  was  down  there  thinking  it  over,  that  I  would 
have  given  considerable  for  a  good,  high  English 
garden  wall  on  the  other  side  of  Van  Shaw's  body 
and  me.  A  lantern  is  a  poor  thing  to  brace  your 
feet  on.  It  lacks  staying  powers." 

"  Gentlemen,"  said  Masters,  turning  to  the  group 
around  the  fire,  "  we  have  had  a  most  wonderful 
deliverance  from  a  tragedy  and  it  is  due  to  the  hero- 
ism of  two  of  the  bravest  men  that  ever  lived. 
Elijah,  don't  interrupt  me.  The  only  way  we  can 
express  our  thanks  is  to  go  to  the  Heavenly  Father 
with  them,"  and  without  a  moment's  pause  as  if  it 
were  the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world,  as  it  vas 
with  him,  Masters  broke  into  a  prayer  of  thanks- 
giving so  tender  and  eloquent  that  Helen,  whose  cot 
had  been  placed  in  one  of  the  tents  with  its  front 
opening  near  the  fire  where  she  could  hear  every- 
thing, bent  her  head  over  on  her  arms  and  cried. 

She  had  been  under  a  great  nervous  tension  all 
day.  And  this  last  scene,  coming  as  a  most  aston- 
ishing climax  to  it  all,  affected  her  quick  imagina- 
tion. Another  thing  had  added  to  all  the  rest,  at 
the  memory  of  which  she  blushed  as  slie  hid  her  face 
in  her  hands  during  the  quiet  that  followed  that 
prayer  by  Masters. 

When  the  three  cots,  her  own,  Bauer's  and  Van 
Shaw's,  had  been  brought  down  the  trail,  at  one 
place  in  a  turn  of  the  passage,  while  the  bearers  had 
to  set  the  cots  down  to  make  some  changes  in  the 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  301 

way  of  carrying  them,  her  cot  had  stood  a  moment 
by  the  side  of  Van  Shaw's.  And  in  that  moment,  in 
the  pale  darkness,  softened  by  the  light  of  two  or 
three  lanterns,  she  had  felt  her  hand  seized.  She 
almost  screamed.  It  was  Van  Shaw's  hand  that  had 
reached  out  from  his  blanket  and  for  a  moment  he 
had  almost  crushed  her  fingers.  She  was  not  cer- 
tain even  now  that  he  had  known  what  he  was  doing, 
or  that  it  was  more  than  a  convulsive  movement  in 
his  semi-conscious  condition.  But  the  memory  of 
it  burned  her  cheeks  like  fire,  and  long  after  the  last 
embers  of  the  camp  fire  had  died  into  grey  ashes,  she 
lay  there  in  the  tent  wide  awake  and  sleepless. 

After  awhile  she  grew  aware  that  her  mother  was 
sitting  close  by  her.  Esther  had  determined,  after 
what  she  had  heard  from  Bauer,  to  have  a  talk  with 
Helen  at  the  first  opportunity.  The  accident  to 
Van  Shaw  had  changed  her  purpose  somewhat,  but 
she  said  to  herself  it  had  not  changed  the  facts  in 
the  case  of  Van  Shaw's  character,  and  the  matter  was 
still  in  the  same  condition  as  before  the  accident 
happened.  With  that  in  mind,  mother  and  daugh- 
ter began  to  talk  together  almost  in  a  whisper,  mind- 
ful of  the  thin  tent  walls  and  the  nearness  of  the 
other  members  of  the  party.  Their  precaution 
was,  however,  almost  needless,  for  everyone  in  both 
camps  was  sound  asleep,  and  Van  Shaw's  own  wagon 
and  tent  were  at  the  farthest  bounds  of  the  camp,  re- 
moved from  the  rest  so  he  would  not  be  disturbed. 

"  I  can't  sleep,  mother,  it  has  been  such  an  excit- 
ing day.  Was  there  ever  such  a  day  in  my  life? 


302  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

And  I  think  this  last  thing  has  shaken  me.  I  never 
knew  before  what  it  meant  to  have  nerves.  But  I 
can't  shut  out  the  picture  of  that  snake  dance  and 
that  terrible  cliff  and " 

She  hesitated  and  then  feeling  her  mother's  hand 
enfolding  hers,  she  said,  with  the  frankness  that  had 
always  been  true  of  her  confidences  with  her  mother : 

"  There  is  another  thing  that  has  made  the  day 
different  from  any  other  day  for  me.  I  ought  to 
tell  you,  mother." 

"  Don't  tell  anything  that  belongs  to  you  as  your 
own." 

"  No.  But  this  belongs  to  you.  I  cannot  rest 
without  telling." 

Helen  was  glad  the  darkness  hid  her  face.  She 
told  her  mother  plainly  what  Van  Shaw  had  said  to 
her  up  there  on  the  rock  during  the  brief  time  they 
had  been  alone. 

When  Helen  had  apparently  told  all,  Esther  was 
silent.  Helen  began  to  feel  frightened. 

"  Well,  mother,  you  don't  blame  me,  do  you?  Did 
I,  have  I — at  any  time  given  him  any — any — en- 
couragement to  think " 

"  No,  no,  dear,  I  am  sure  you  have  not  been  un- 
maidenly.  But  you  do  not  know  all — as  I  do,  as 
others  do,  of  this  young  man.  I  think  you  ought 
to  know  before  you  let  your  feeling,  whatever  it  is, 
go  farther." 

And  in  a  direct,  plain  way,  as  she  had  always 
talked  with  her  children,  Esther  told  Helen  what 
Bauer  had  told  her. 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  303 

When  she  finished,  the  girl  was  silent  so  long,  that 
her  mother  began  to  fear  again,  that  deadening  fear 
she  had  experienced  of  late  whenever  she  had  come 
to  realise  the  girl's  infatuation  for  the  luxurious 
life.  But  Esther  was  not  prepared  for  the  question 
Helen  asked  when  she  broke  her  long  silence. 

"  How  did  you  come  to  know  all  this,  mother? 
How  do  you  know  it  is  true  ?  " 

It  was  Esther's  turn  to  be  silent.  If  she  told 
Helen  that  her  source  of  information  was  Bauer,  the 
girl  might  reasonably  put  it  down  as  due  to  the 
jealousy  of  a  rival,  and  so  question  its  reliability. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  at  that  very  moment,  Van 
Shaw's  parting  words  were  in  Helen's  memory, 
"  Don't  believe  all  the  stories  you  may  hear  about 
me." 

"  Mr.  Bauer  told  me,"  said  Esther  slowly.  "  He 
knew  the  facts.  They  are  known  to  others  at  Burr- 
ton.  His  only  motive  was  to  save  you  the " 

"  He  might  spare  himself  the  trouble,"  said  Helen, 
sharply.  "  I  can't  help  thinking  he  is  interfering  in 
my  affairs  and  especially  in  Mr.  Van  Shaw's." 

"  He  certainly  interfered  in  his  affairs  when  he 
saved  his  life  to-night,"  said  Esther  quietly,  and  the 
words  smote  Helen  almost  like  a  blow.  For  she  real- 
ised for  the  first  time  that  night  that  her  sympathy 
and  imagination  had  been  exercised  almost  wholly 
for  Van  Shaw,  broken  and  bruised  in  that  awful  fall 
over  the  cliff.  "  Saved  his  life !  "  Bauer  had  done 
that!  After  telling  her  mother  the  story  she  had 
just  heard!  It  was  a  most  wonderful  thing  to  do, 


304  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

as  Elijah  Clifford  had  said  in  his  narrative  out  there 
a  little  while  ago.  And  yet,  and  yet,  she  heard  her- 
self saying  to  her  mother  the  next  moment: 

"  It  seems  strange  that  Mr.  Bauer  should  tell  you 
this.  It  doesn't  seem  possible.  I  can't  believe  it !  " 

At  that,  Esther  could  not  suppress  a  heart  cry  so 
full  of  agony  that  Helen  was  terrified. 

"  Mother !  mother !  "  was  all  she  could  say.  But 
Esther  quickly  calmed  herself. 

"  Helen,  if  this  young  man  should  be  unworthy 
of  you,  could  you  give  yourself  to  him  simply  be- 
cause he  had  money  to  offer?  " 

"  No,  no,  mother,  I  am  not  wicked  like  that.  You 
must  not  think  so.  I  could  not  help  questioning  Mr. 

Bauer's  statements.  He  is  not  altogether "  she 

could  not  say  the  word  "  disinterested,"  and  her 
mother  said  it  for  her. 

"  But  he  knows  how  hopeless  his  case  is.  He  is 
not  expecting  to  gain  any  favour  by  telling  me  what 
he  knows.  Can  you  not  see  it  is  simply  to  save  you 
from  making  the  most  awful  mistake  a  girl  can  make 
in  all  her  life  when  she  unknowingly  marries  such  a 
man?  Bauer  never  expects  to  be  a  successful 
suitor.  I  do  not  believe  you  have  any  true  measure 
of  his  feeling  for  you.  But  he  is  willing  to  risk 
anything  to  spare  you  misery.  Cannot  you  see 
that?  What  other  motive  could  he  have?  He  is 
not  a  rival.  The  poor  fellow  told  me  frankly  that 
he  had  given  up  all  hope  for  himself.  It  is  pure 
friendship,  and  it  is  so  rare  and  so  beautiful  a  thing 
that  you  cannot  afford  to  trample  it  down  or  disbe- 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  305 

lieve  the  story  he  told  me.  Helen,  if  you  should  let 
your  admiration  for  money  and  its  power  take  such 
a  step  as  to  encourage  a  man  like  Van  Shaw,  it  would 
break  your  mother's  heart.  But  worse  than  that,  it 
would  break  your  own.  Oh,  you  cannot,  you  will  not 
do  such  a  thing." 

What  could  Helen  say  to  that?  And  what  less 
could  Esther  say  to  her?  Let  the  careless  mothers 
in  America  answer — the  mothers  who  never  talk 
frankly  with  their  daughters  about  these  things, 
and  the  careless  daughters  who  never  take  their 
mothers  into  their  confidence.  How  many  unhappy 
marriages  would  never  occur  if  mothers  did  their 
duty  and  daughters  listened  to  and  heeded  the  best 
friend  they  have  on  earth. 

When  Mrs.  Douglas  had  finally  fallen  asleep, 
Helen  still  remained  broad  awake.  Things  had  been 
said  in  the  heart  talk  that  made  it  impossible  for  her 
to  compose  herself  to  sleep.  She  could  no  longer 
doubt  the  truthfulness  of  Bauer  or  his  clear  motive, 
and  strange  tumult  arose  in  her  thought  over  the 
statement  her  mother  had  made  about  his  abandon- 
ment of  any  thought  of  her  as  her  suitor.  The  fact 
that  he  had  expressed  such  a  sentiment  to  her  mother 
made  Helen  a  little  angry.  Why  should  he  give 
up  all  hope  so  easily — why — what  was  she  thinking? 
She  said  to  herself  she  did  not  want  men  to  be 
cowards,  but  surely  Felix  Bauer  was  not  a  coward. 
A  man  who  would  go  over  a  cliff  like  that  did  not 
deserve  to  have  a  timid  girl  like  her  call  him  a 
coward.  Only 


306  THE    HIGH   CALLING 

And  in  the  midst  of  all  her  other  feelings  she  could 
not  altogether  shut  out  the  sight  of  Van  Shaw, 
broken  and  bruised  as  he  had  lain  in  agony  there  on 
the  seat  in  the  little  chapel  and  she  could  not,  even 
after  all  her  mother  had  said,  quite  dismiss  him  from 
her  thought.  Her  cheek  glowed,  as  she  raised  the 
question  in  her  imagination,  of  money  and  its  fascin- 
ating power.  Were  all  young  men  of  wealth  like 
Van  Shaw?  Would  it  never  be  possible  for  her  to 
marry  wealth  and  virtue  together?  And  again  there 
was  that  strange  commingling  of  shame  and  exulta- 
tion as  she  realised  what  a  power  she  possessed  to 
attract  even  such  an  one  as  Van  Shaw,  and  try  as 
hard  as  she  would  she  did  not  drive  out  the  scene  of 
his  declaration  that  morning.  At  any  rate,  it  was 
genuine.  Let  him  be  what  he  had  been,  might  she 
not  awaken  all  the  latent  good  in  his  nature  and 
save  him — her  mother's  ideas  were  very  strict  and 
serious.  They  were  perhaps  puritanical.  But  after 
all 

So  she  restlessly  went  back  and  forth  in  her  argu- 
ment and  only  fell  asleep  towards  morning,  her  heart 
and  mind  wearied  with  the  whole  thing.  Before  she 
fell  asleep  she  resolved  to  have  a  talk  with  Miss  Gray 
and  make  her  tell  what  she  knew.  She  said  to  her- 
self she  would  at  least  not  dismiss  Van  Shaw  entirely 
until  she  knew  even  more  than  her  mother  had  been 
able  to  tell  her  about  him. 

But  before  the  opportunity  came  for  Miss  Gray's 
confidence,  several  unexpected  events  occurred  that 
made  Helen  wonder  if  she  were  in  a  land  of  enchant- 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  307 

ment.  After  what  had  already  become  a  part  of  her 
history  in  this  strange  land,  she  might  be  pardoned, 
if,  with  her  highly  romantic  temperament,  she  felt 
excited  to  an  unusual  degree. 

In  the  first  place,  Mr.  Masters  had  word,  that  next 
morning  after  the  snake  dance,  that  he  was  needed 
imperatively  at  Tolchaco  on  account  of  the  illness  of 
Ansa,  old  Begwoettins'  grandchild.  This  was  Miss 
Gray's  favourite,  and  she  was  eager  to  return  to  the 
mission  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Masters  as  soon  as  pos- 
sible. Accordingly  the  fastest  team  and  the  lightest 
outfit  were  pressed  into  service  and  a  short  time  after 
breakfast  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Masters  and  Miss  Gray 
were  ready  to  take  the  road  by  the  Oraibi  Wash, 
hoping  to  make  Tolchaco  by  the  next  afternoon. 
Elijah  Clifford  wanted  to  go  but  it  seemed  necessary 
for  him  to  remain  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Douglas  and 
help  pack  up  for  the  return  trip.  Besides,  two  of 
the  chuck  wagon  teams  had  broken  their  hobbles  in 
the  night  and  wandered  off  into  the  "  indefinite  no- 
where," as  Clifford  said,  and  until  they  were  found 
and  brought  back,  it  was  imposible  for  the  rest  of 
the  party  to  hitch  in  and  leave  Oraibi. 

As  if  Providence  had  come  to  the  special  help  of 
Walter,  just  before  Masters  had  finished  his  prep- 
arations to  leave,  the  Navajo  runner  who  had 
brought  word  of  Ansa's  illness  went  silently  to  Wal- 
ter and  handed  him  a  letter  that  had  reached  Tol- 
chaco post  office  the  day  the  runner  started.  It 
had  a  special  delivery  stamp  on  it  to  indicate  the 
desire  of  the  sender  for  haste,  and  after  reading, 


308  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

Walter  rushed  over  to  his  father  who  was  helping 
Masters  hitch  up  the  traces. 

"  Listen  to  this,  father !  "  he  said  in  great  excite- 
ment, while  Mrs.  Masters  and  Miss  Gray  were  get- 
ting into  the  wagon  and  saying  good-bye  to  Mrs. 
Douglas  and  Helen.  "  Anderson  writes  that  Blake, 
the  assistant  foreman,  is  sick,  and  if  I  can  come  on 
and  help  him  work  over  the  installation  of  those  new 
Reimark  dynamos  before  term  opens,  he  can  promise 
me  a  good  place  as  second  assistant  in  the  coil  room 
this  winter.  I  know  more  about  the  Reimark  than 
Anderson  himself  and  it  will  be  a  fine  chance  for  me. 
He  says  I  can  have  full  pay  for  summer  term  work. 
I  shall  have  to  start  back  to  Burrton  by  the  first, 
anyway,  and  if  Mr.  Masters  can  take  me  along  now, 
I  can  get  over  to  Canon  Diablo  or  Winslow  in  time 
to  make  the  California  express  and  get  into  Burr- 
ton  next  week." 

Masters  gave  a  quick  consent. 

"  We  can  take  four  as  well  as  three.     Come  on." 

Walter  rushed  his  few  camp  things  into  his  suit 
case,  stowed  it  under  the  seat,  kissed  his  mother  and 
Helen,  shook  hands  with  Bauer,  who  was  able  to  sit 
up  on  his  cot  in  the  near  by  tent,  and  climbed  into 
the  wagon  by  the  side  of  Mr.  Masters. 

Elijah  Clifford  was  not  present  when  all  this  oc- 
curred, and  when  he  came  into  camp  two  hours  later 
trailing  the  fugitive  horses  after  him,  Masters's 
wagon  was  a  black  speck  down  by  the  Oraibi  Wash. 

Bauer  told  him  of  Walter's  unexpected  return  to 
Tolchaco  with  Mr.  Masters  and  Miss  Gray. 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  309 

"  Yes,  I  told  you,"  said  Clifford.  And  for  a  mo- 
ment Bauer  thought  he  could  detect  a  note  of  pen- 
sive regret  in  his  words.  "  I  told  you  Walter  was 
lost.  It's  wonderful  what  providences  there  are  for 
some  people.  That  professor  in  that  school 
couldn't  have  figured  on  getting  that  letter  here  at 
a  more  real  serviceable  opportunity  for  Walter,  if 
he  had  been  a  real  first  class  magician.  And  did 
you  say  there  was  a  special  delivery  stamp  on  the 
letter?  That  beats  everything  worse  than  nothing. 
That's  the  first  time,  I  reckon,  in  five  hundred  years 
that  a  special  delivery  stamp  was  ever  used  on  a 
Tolchaco  letter.  And  just  think  of  the  way  things 
cogged  into  the  right  openings  to  get  that  letter 
there  by  special  messenger.  Well,  well,  I  wouldn't 
mind  being  in  Walter's  place  myself  if  I  didn't  feel 
so  necessary  here.  But  Mr.  Douglas  can't  drive 
these  mustangs  back  to  Tolchaco." 

He  winked  at  Bauer  good  naturedly  and  hastened 
to  inquire  into  his  condition. 

"  I'm  black  and  blue,"  said  Bauer,  '"  but  other- 
wise, sehr  gut.  This  is  a  miraculous  climate.  My 
hemorrhage  is  slight,  and  I  don't  believe  it  will  re- 
cur. I  have  no  symptoms.  I  don't  want  you  to 
delay  the  return  on  my  account."  Then  he  added 
after  a  pause,  "  How  is  Van  Shaw?  " 

"  That  fellow,"  said  Elijah,  "  has  missed  breaking 
his  neck  by  a  miracle.  His  collar  bone  was  frac- 
turned  clear  up  to  the  last  bone  in  his  spinal  column. 
Both  of  his  legs  were  broken  below  the  knee.  He 
must  have  struck  right  on  his  toes  when  he  fell,  and 


310  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

doubled  up  on  himself.  He  can't  move  out  of  here 
for  some  while.  But  I  understand  his  mother  has 
sent  a  wire  from  Winslow  for  Mr.  Van  Shaw  to 
come  on  from  Pittsburg.  She  is  pretty  well  upset 
by  the  whole  business.  She  tried  to  thank  me  for 
saving  her  son's  life  and  I  think  she  was  too  hysteri- 
cal and  excited  to  understand  me  when  I  told  her 
you  were  the  party.  She  hinted  that  her  husband 
would  probably  deed  a  railroad  or  two  to  me  for 
saving  her  precious  son's  life.  If  they  send  the  rail- 
road out  here  I'll  turn  it  over  to  you.  I  don't 
want  it." 

"  But  you  did  save  him,"  said  Bauer  with  some 
feeling. 

"  Well,  no,  I  reckon  I  just  preserved  him.  You 
had  him  saved,  and  I  just  took  what  you  handed 
over  and  passed  it  up.  But,  what  were  you  doing 
out  there  on  the  edge  of  that  rock  last  night,  any- 
how? I  forgot  to  ask  when  I  was  down  there  on  the 
ledge  and  never  thought  of  it  again  until  just 
now." 

Bauer  was  spared  the  embarrassment  of  trying  to 
satisfy  Clifford's  good  natured  curiosity  by  the  ar- 
rival into  the  tent  of  Mrs.  Douglas,  accompanied 
by  the  tourist  doctor  who  had  offered  his  services  to 
both  Bauer  and  Van  Shaw  and  had  fortunately  had 
enough  of  his  repair  kit  with  him  to  do  all  that  could 
be  done  outside  of  a  well  appointed  hospital. 

He  pronounced  Bauer  to  be  in  good  condition  and 
anticipated  no  recurrence  of  the  flow  for  him  if  he 
were  careful.  Van  Shaw  was  in  a  more  serious  case. 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  311 

He  was  suffering  from  a  nervous  shock  and  would 
have  to  stay  where  he  was  for  some  time.  A  room 
had  been  hired  in  a  small  stone  house  belonging  to 
the  government  farmer,  and  Van  Shaw  was  as  com- 
fortable as  he  could  be  under  the  circumstances. 
But  he  was  delirious  a  part  of  the  time  and  the  doc- 
tor evidently  believed  his  condition  to  be  serious,  if 
not  critical. 

Helen  received  the  news  of  all  this  from  her  mother 
when  she  came  back  from  Bauer's  tent.  She  was 
much  shocked  at  the  account  Mrs.  Douglas  gave. 
And  again,  as  during  the  night,  she  found  herself 
dwelling  more  over  Van  Shaw's  suffering  than 
Bauer's  heroism. 

The  doctor  advised  two  days'  rest  for  Bauer  be- 
fore starting  back  to  Tolchaco,  so  Clifford  delayed 
the  preparations  for  their  start  and  during  that 
time  Talavenka  came  to  see  Helen,  and  Helen,  with 
her  accustomed  enthusiasm,  suggested  to  her  in 
Esther's  presence,  a  plan  for  going  east  and  com- 
pleting her  education. 

Talavenka  listened  with  perfect  equanimity  to 
Helen's  glowing  account  of  the  opportunities  for 
education  in  the  girls'  school  at  Milton.  Then  she 
said  with  more  than  a  quiet  manner, — it  was  a  poise 
of  all  the  faculties,  that  a  white  person  seldom  pos- 
sesses : 

"  You  are  kind,  but  I  ought  to  stay  here  with 
my  mother  for  awhile.  She  needs  me." 

"  But  would  she  not  be  willing  to  have  you  go 
away  for  a  little  while  just  to  gain  more  power  for 


812  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

your  people?  Mother,  would  you  be  willing  to  have 
Talavenka  stay  with  us  this  winter?  " 

"  I  have  already  talked  with  your  father  and  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Masters  about  Talavenka  and  we  are  ready 
to  take  her  into  our  home  and  treat  her  like  one  of 
our  own  circle,"  said  Esther,  who  was  chairman  of 
the  missionary  committee  in  her  church  and  a  great 
enthusiast  in  all  forms  of  missionary  work. 

Talavenka  turned  her  black  eyes  to  Mrs.  Doug- 
las. Her  face  shone.  The  light  of  her  Christian 
faith  illuminated  her  countenance  like  a  gleam  of 
sunshine.  It  was  so  marked  that  both  Mrs.  Doug- 
las and  Helen  were  startled  by  it. 

"  I  do  not  know  how  to  thank  you.  But  my 
mother  needs  me  this  winter.  I  must  stay  with 
her." 

She  said  it  so  gently,  with  such  a  complete  sense 
of  joyousness  and  an  absence  of  all  thought  of  re- 
nunciation, that  Helen  was  profoundly  moved. 
There  was  no  possibility  of  changing  her  mind  or 
insisting.  There  was  something  about  Talavenka's 
simple  statement  that  was  distinctly  final. 

When  the  girl  rose  to  go,  Helen  noticed  the  red- 
dish brown  water  jar  that  Talavenka  had  dropped 
by  the  tent  opening  when  she  had  entered. 

"Yes,"  she  said,  as  she  put  the  jar  on  her  back 
after  passing  the  cord  through  the  ears  of  it,  "I 
am  going  down  to  the  spring.  How  glad  I  am  to  be 
so  well.  Jesus  helps  me  to  bear  all  things." 

She  went  out  and  half  an  hour  later,  Helen,  lying 
on  her  cot  outside  the  tent,  saw  her  again  coming 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  313 

up  the  trail  with  the  swinging  trot  peculiar  to  the 
Hopi  women,  the  full  jar  on  her  back,  and  she  was 
singing,  not  the  old  song  that  her  mother  still  sung, 
but  a  Christian  hymn,  "  A  little  talk  with  Jesus 
makes  it  right,  all  right." 

Helen  watched  her  until  she  vanished  behind  the 
first  cluster  of  grey  houses.  Talavenka  had  gone 
back  to  her  people  for  awhile.  But  her  torch  was 
aflame,  the  torch  of  that  faith  that  is  destined  in 
time  to  kindle  the  grey  rock  of  Oraibi  into  a  beacon 
of  illumination  that  shall  give  healing  and  salvation 
to  all  those  darkened  minds  and  make  the  desert  to 
blossom  like  the  rose  of  Sharon  and  the  lily  of  the 
valley. 

The  second  day  Elijah  Clifford  and  Paul  began  to 
pack  up,  ready  to  break  camp  the  following  morn- 
ing and  start  back  to  Oraibi.  Van  Shaw's  condition 
was  not  much  changed  except  that  he  was  more  ra- 
tional. This  was  a  hopeful  symptom  and  the  doctor 
made  the  most  of  it,  encouraging  Mrs.  Van  Shaw  all 
he  could. 

Mr.  Van  Shaw  was  expected  the  next  day,  coming 
from  Winslow.  Van  Shaw's  friends,  after  learning 
that  there  was  nothing  special  for  them  to  do,  had 
already  made  their  plans  to  leave  when  the  Tolchaco 
party  went,  going  in  company  with  Clifford. 

Helen  was  nervous  and  unhappy.  She  had  begun 
to  brood  over  matters.  Her  mother  had  not  said 
any  more  after  that  night's  talk,  but  she  could 
easily  see  that  Helen  was  still  going  over  the  same 
ground,  and  that  the  chapter  had  not  yet  been  closed 


314  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

for  her.  The  thought  gave  Esther  much  uneasi- 
ness and  yet  she  thought  it  unwise  to  open  the  sub- 
ject again  and  so  maintained  a  discreet  silence, 
trusting  to  absence  from  the  scene  and  the  return 
to  Milton  to  do  what  only  time  could  effect  in  the 
girl's  mind. 

It  lacked  an  hour  or  two  of  the  time  for  departure 
the  next  morning  when  Mrs.  Van  Shaw  came  over 
to  the  camp  with  marks  of  trouble  in  her  looks  as 
she  came  into  the  tent  where  Mrs.  Douglas  and 
Helen  were  sitting.  Mrs.  Douglas  was  an  energetic 
camper  and  had  completed  her  packing  early  and 
was  ready  for  the  wagons  as  soon  as  the  horses  had 
been  hitched  in. 

Mrs.  Van  Shaw  was  a  showy  woman  who  had  done 
her  best  to  spoil  her  son  ever  since  his  birth,  by  giv- 
ing him  everything  he  wanted,  simply  because  he 
asked  for  it. 

On  this  occasion  she  came  at  once  to  the  point  of 
her  errand. 

"  Mrs.  Douglas,  my  boy  wants  to  see  Miss  Doug- 
las before  you  go.  He  says  he  wants  to  say  some- 
thing to  her  in  our  presence.  He  has  been  begging 
me  to  come  and  see  you  all  the  morning.  Can  you 
come  over  now  before  you  leave  ?  " 

Helen  sat  up  a  little  higher  on  her  cot,  and  her 
cheeks  flamed.  Mrs.  Douglas  looked  at  her,  hesi- 
tated, and  then  answered  Mrs.  Van  Shaw. 


CHAPTER    XVII 

WHAT  does  your  son  want  to  say  to  my 
daughter?  "  asked  Esther.  The  thought  of 
a  dramatic  interview  between  them  was  exceedingly 
distasteful  to  her. 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Mrs.  Van  Shaw  guardedly. 
"  He  has  been  begging  me  to  come  and  see  you.  Oh, 
he  is  very  ill ! "  and  at  that  the  mother  in  her,  mis- 
taken and  distorted  though  it  were,  in  her  training 
of  the  boy,  broke  down  and  she  began  to  sob. 

Esther  was  moved  at  the  sight,  and  after  a  mo- 
ment she  said  gently,  "  We  are  all  so  sorry  for  you, 
Mrs.  Van  Shaw.  The  shock  of  it  all  must  have  been 
terrible  for  you." 

"  I  am  just  about  prostrated  by  it.  Mr.  Van 
Shaw  is  expected  to-day.  He  was  in  New  York 
when  the  news  reached  him.  But  it  surely  is  not 
asking  anything  improper  to  ask  Miss  Douglas  to 
see  my  boy  before  you  leave.  We  shall  be  obliged 
to  remain  here  in  this  dreadful  place  until  the  doctor 
says  Ross  can  be  moved." 

"  Will  you  see  him  ?  "  asked  Esther,  turning  to 
Helen,  and  speaking  quietly. 

"  Yes,  I  am  willing  to  go,"  replied  Helen  in  a 
very  low  voice.  She  dreaded  and  at  the  same  time 
courted  the  interview.  It  had  just  the  tinge  of 

315 


316  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

dramatic  setting  in  it  that  appealed  to  her  highly 
romantic  imagination.  She  did  not  know  what  he 
wanted  to  say  to  her  and  she  was  not  in  the  least  pre- 
pared for  the  interview.  But  it  seemed  to  her  that 
it  would  be  a  piece  of  foolish  affectation  to  refuse 
his  request  and  especially  since  she  would  in  all 
probability  not  have  any  occasion  to  meet  him 
again. 

Esther  went  out  of  the  tent  and  in  a  few  words 
told  Paul  of  Mrs.  Van  Shaw's  visit  and  its  object. 
Helen  would  have  to  be  carried  over  to  the  govern- 
ment farmer's  house.  Clifford  called  up  two  of  the 
Indians  and  with  their  help,  he  and  Paul  carried 
Helen  over.  Bauer,  who  was  hardly  yet  fit  to  sit 
up,  but  had  already  climbed  into  his  place  in  one  of 
the  chuck  wagons,  saw  the  whole  thing  from  where  he 
sat,  and  again  his  mind  went  into  a  whirl  with  jeal- 
ousy and  anger.  If  Helen's  mother  had  told  her 
of  Van  Shaw's  character,  how  could  the  girl,  in  spite 
of  all  that,  go  and  see  him  now?  It  seemed  to  him 
like  an  indication  of  something  coarse  and  low  in 
Helen's  nature,  something  which  contradicted  his 
pure  thought  of  her.  He  could  not  understand  it, 
and  being  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  Helen  was  going 
in  response  to  Mrs.  Van  Shaw's  request,  he  brooded 
miserably  over  the  whole  affair  and  sat  there  gazing 
gloomily  at  the  little  stone  house  into  which  the 
group  with  Helen  had  gone. 

Paul  and  Clifford  and  the  Indians  soon  came  out 
and  went  on  completing  their  preparations  for  the 
departure. 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  817 

Meanwhile,  in  the  little  room  where  Ross  Van 
Shaw  lay,  tortured  in  mind  and  body,  a  remarkable 
scene  was  being  enacted. 

There  was  just  room  close  by  the  door  for  the  cot 
on  which  Helen  was  sitting,  and  the  moment  she  was 
placed  there,  she  was  aware  of  Van  Shaw's  face  star- 
ing at  her.  The  sight  of  it  shocked  her  almost  to 
the  verge  of  hysterics.  She  instantly  controlled 
herself  as  she  quickly  noted  the  fact  that  both  her 
mother  and  Mrs.  Van  Shaw  were  watching  her. 

"  I  wanted  to  see  you  before  you  went  away," 
Van  Shaw  was  saying,  and  his  voice  sounded  very 
weak  and  a  long  ways  off  to  Helen  as  she  saw  the 
tremble  of  his  hands  and  the  uncertain  glance  he  cast 
at  her,  so  sharply  different  from  his  previous  bold 
and  positive  attitude  towards  her. 

"  We  are  so  sorry  for  you,"  said  Helen.  "  It  was 
a  miracle  you  were  not  killed." 

"  Yes.  Thanks  to  Mr.  Clifford,  mother  tells  me. 
I  want  to  thank  him  before  he  goes.  Mother,  won't 
you  ask  him  to  come  in?  " 

"  Yes,  Ross.  But  do  you  think  you  can  bear  all 
this  excitement?  I  am  afraid  it  will  be  too  much 
for  you."  The  government  farmer's  wife,  who  was 
acting  as  nurse,  added  a  word  of  objection. 

"  No,  it  won't,"  he  said  irritably.  "  I  want  to 
see  him.  Didn't  you  tell  me  he  saved  my  life?  I 
ought  at  least  to  thank  him  for  it." 

"  I'll  tell  him,  yes  I  will !  "  Mrs.  Van  Shaw  spoke 
in  the  hurried,  anxious  tone  of  one  who  feared  a 
scene  if  she  refused  his  request. 


318  THE    HIGH   CALLING 

"  Tell  him  now,  then  mother.  Ask  him  to  come 
in  now." 

"  I  will.  I  will."  Mrs.  Van  Shaw  rose  and  went 
out  of  the  room,  leaving  Mrs.  Douglas  and  Helen 
staring  at  Van  Shaw  and  wondering  how  he  had  not 
heard  the  news  of  his  rescue  by  Bauer. 

Van  Shaw  turned  his  look  again  towards  Helen. 
And  she  saw  then,  even  in  her  agitation,  that  he  was 
moved  by  the  excitement  of  his  fever.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  doctor,  when  he  came  the  next  day,  was 
in  a  towering  rage  with  Mrs.  Van  Shaw  over  what  he 
called  her  insane  yielding  to  the  request  of  a  deliri- 
ous patient. 

"  I  wanted  to  see  you,  Miss  Douglas,  before  you 
went  and  warn  you  about  that  German  fellow  Bauer. 
He's  been  telling  you  stories  about  me,  and  trying 
to  butt  into  my  affairs  and  I  just  won't  stand  for  it. 
You  ought  to  know  that  his  father  and  mother  are 
in  disgrace  over  a  great  scandal " 

Esther  could  not  bear  any  more.  She  stood  up 
and  started  to  speak,  just  as  Mrs.  Van  Shaw  came 
hurrying  in  with  Elijah  Clifford.  Helen  was  look- 
ing at  Van  Shaw  with  a  different  look  from  that 
which  she  had  given  him  when  she  entered.  It 
seemed  as  if  a  veil  had  been  suddenly  torn  away  from 
the  girl's  face  and  she  was  seeing  something  clearly 
which  she  had  seen  only  dimly  heretofore. 

Before  Esther  could  say  what  was  on  her  lips, 
Van  Shaw  had  gone  on.  But  it  was  evident  to  all 
of  them  now  that  he  was  becoming  delirious. 

"  Bauer  hasn't  any  business  to  butt  into  my  af- 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  319 

fairs.  He's  a  sneaking  cur.  I  won't  stand  for  it. 
I'll  get  even  with  him.  I'll  tell  Miss  Douglas  about 
his  family.  She'll  never  look  at  him  again  after 
that.  I'll  cook  his  job." 

Mrs.  Van  Shaw  looked  uncertainly  from  one  face 
to  another. 

"  Here's  Mr.  Clifford,  Ross.  You  wanted  to  see 
him." 

"Clifford!  Clifford!"  Van  Shaw  turned  his 
burning  eyes  on  Clifford,  who  stood  at  the  end  of 
the  bed  gravely  looking  at  him,  and  for  a  moment 
the  delirium  cleared  and  he  spoke  quietly. 

"Oh!  I  wanted  to  thank  you  for  pulling  me  up 
that  cliff.  It  was  a  mighty  brave  thing  to  do  and 
I  won't  forget  it." 

Elijah  Clifford  was  not  a  cultured  man  as  the 
word  is  ordinarily  used,  but  he  was  more  than  that. 
He  "  sensed  "  things.  He  knew  what  to  do  in  awk- 
ward situations.  He  did  not  know  what  had  been 
said  before  he  came  but  he  saw  in  one  swift  glance 
that  matters  were  in  a  delicate  and  critical  state. 
He  also  saw  in  a  moment  what  Van  Shaw's  condition; 
was.  He  was  not  in  a  mental  attitude  to  be  rea- 
soned with.  So  Clifford  walked  quietly  up  to  the 
bedside,  put  one  of  his  strong,  firm  hands  on  Van 
Shaw's  trembling  fingers  as  he  had  clasped  them  to- 
gether and  said: 

"  If  I  had  anything  to  do  with  helping  to  save 
your  life,  I  am  very  thankful  the  good  God  used  me. 
But  your  mother  will  tell  you  when  you  get  well 
enough  to  hear  it  that  you  owe  your  life,  not  to  me, 


320  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

but  to  a  braver  man,  Felix  Bauer.  I  can't  help  hop- 
ing— "  Elijah  said  it  with  an  indescribable  accent  of 
tenderness — "  that  when  you  get  well  again,  you  will 
make  the  most  of  your  life  to  the  glory  of  God ! " 

For  a  moment  Van  Shaw  looked  up  at  Clifford  in 
a  bewildered  manner,  but  as  if  he  partly  understood. 
Then  he  turned  his  head  towards  Helen  and  his 
glance  wandered  uncertainly  about  the  room.  Then 
he  burst  into  a  delirious  laugh. 

"  Bauer  saved  me !  That  sneaking  cur !  Why, 
he  pushed  me  over  the  cliff !  I'll  get  even  with  him ! 
Butting  into  my  affairs !  I  won't  stand  for  it.  His 
father  and  mother " 

But  Helen  could  not  bear  any  more.  She  had 
cowered  down  when  Van  Shaw  spoke  the  first  word. 
Now  she  whispered  to  her  mother,  "  Take  me  out, 
mother,  I  cannot  bear  it." 

Clifford  simply  said  to  Mrs.  Van  Shaw: 
.   "  We  had  better  go,  Mrs.  Van  Shaw.     If  you  and 
the  nurse  need  any  help,  call  us." 

He  took  hold  of  one  end  of  the  litter  and  Mrs. 
Douglas  took  the  other  and  they  carried  Helen  out. 
Before  they  were  out  of  hearing,  Van  Shaw  was 
cursing  and  swearing  in  a  torrent  of  words  that  made 
Helen  cover  her  ears  as  she  lay  back  on  the  cot  sob- 
bing from  the  nervous  strain  she  had  been  bear- 
ing. 

Clifford  and  Paul  and  the  Indians  finished  the 
work  of  breaking  up  camp  and  in  half  an  hour  the 
party  was  ready  to  leave  Oraibi.  Esther  had  asked 
Clifford  to  wait  until  she  went  over  to  enquire  if 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  321 

she  could  do  any  more  for  Mrs.  Van  Shaw,  when 
she  met  her  coming  out  of  the  house. 

"  No,  there  is  nothing  you  can  do,"  she  said,  in 
answer  to  Mrs.  Douglas's  inquiry.  "  Ross  was  al- 
ways that  violent  whenever  he  had  a  fever.  Ever 
since  he  was  little,  he  has  been  the  same.  It  is 
dreadful  what  words  he  will  use  when  he  is  out  of 
his  head.  But  I  cannot  let  Mr.  Clifford  go  until  I 
know  the  truth  about  the  German,  Bauer.  If  he 
saved  Ross,  Mr.  Van  Shaw  would  not  forgive  me  if — - 
if  we  didn't  do  something  for  him.  But  I  have  been 
so  confused  during  all  this  dreadful  affair  that  I 
haven't  really  known  how  it  all  happened.  I  want 
to  see  Mr.  Bauer,  if  you  can  wait  a  little." 

Mrs.  Van  Shaw  was  agitated  and  tearful.  Esther 
could  easily  see  in  her  a  naturally  good  natured, 
kind  hearted  woman,  with  a  superficial  education, 
who  had  ruined  her  children  by  unlimited  indulgence 
of  all  their  selfish  habits.  A  woman  who  had  been 
brought  up  to  believe  that  the  greatest  of  all  things 
in  the  world  is  success  in  getting  money  and  inge- 
nuity in  spending  it.  With  all  the  rest  she  was  a 
woman  of  some  direct  force  of  character  which,  in 
times  of  crisis  as  at  the  present  moment,  asserted 
itself  with  considerable  positiveness. 

She  came  up  to  the  wagons  and  spoke  to  Clifford 
first. 

"  Mr.  Clifford,  before  you  go,  I  want  to  know  the 
truth  about  the  rescue  of  Ross  from  that  fall.  I 
know  you  told  me  about  Mr.  Bauer,  but  I  wasn't 
clear  about  it.  Mr.  Van  Shaw  would  never  forgive 


THE    HIGH    CALLING 

me  if  I  didn't  get  the  thing  straight.  He  is  very 
particular.  And  of  course,  I  naturally  am  deeply 
interested  in  knowing  what  occurred." 

"  There  is  Mr.  Bauer,  madam,"  said  Clifford 
gravely.  "  You  had  better  ask  him  about  it." 

Bauer  was  in  the  same  wagon  with  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Douglas  and  Helen.  On  the  return  trip,  in  the  ab- 
sence of  Mr.  Masters,  Paul  was  driving  the  chuck 
wagon  which  had  been  reloaded  so  as  to  allow 
room  for  Helen's  cot  in  the  rear  end  of  it. 

Mrs.  Van  Shaw  went  over  to  the  wagon  and  be- 
gan to  ask  Bauer  questions. 

"  Is  it  true  that  you  went  down  after  my  son  be- 
fore Mr.  Clifford  came?" 
"  Yes,  ma'am." 
« In  the  dark?" 

"  There  are  no  lights  on  the  edge  of  the  rock." 
"  Did  you  see  him  lying  there  below  ?  " 
"  I  saw  something  that  looked  like  a  body." 
"  How  far  below  was  it?  " 
"  I  don't  know.     I  hadn't  time  to  measure." 
"  Mr.  Clifford  said  something  to  me  about  finding 
you  clinging  to  Ross's  arm.     Why  were  you  doing 
that  if  he  was  lying  on  the  ledge?  " 

**  He  had  turned  over  and  was  rolling  off." 

"  Then  you  were  holding  his  arm " 

"  Until  help  came.  Then  Mr.  Clifford  pulled  him 
back  over  the  edge." 

Mrs.  Van  Shaw  paused.     Then  she  said  abruptly: 
"  My  son  says  you  pushed  him  over  the  cliff." 
"  How  dreadful !  "  a  voice  broke  in  and  there  was 


THE    HIGH   CALLING  323 

Helen,  her  cheeks  on  fire,  sitting  up  confronting 
Mrs.  Van  Shaw. 

"  I  know,  Miss  Douglas,  he  spoke  in  his  delirium. 
But  what  were  you  doing  out  there  together?  Why 
should  you  and  Ross  be  there?"  she  said,  turning 
again  to  Bauer,  who,  when  confronted  with  Van 
Shaw's  charge,  had  turned  pale  and  clenched  his  fin- 
gers deep  into  his  palms. 

"  I  cannot  tell  you  why  we  were  there.  I  did  not 
push  him  over  the  cliff.  The  edge  of  it  where  he 
stood,  crumbled  and  he  went  down." 

"  Why  were  you  there  with  him?  Can't  you  tell 
me  that?" 

"  I  would  rather  not." 

Mrs.  Van  Shaw  looked  uncertainly  from  one  to 
another.  There  was  a  mystery  here.  She  was  too 
much  of  a  woman  of  the  world  not  to  know,  and  in- 
deed, her  son  had  plainly  told  her  that  he  was  infat- 
uated with  Miss  Douglas,  but  what  had  this  obscure 
German  invalid  to  do  with  it?  In  the  midst  of  all 
her  questions,  Helen  broke  in. 

"  Mrs.  Van  Shaw,  do  you  realise  that  Mr.  Bauer 
risked  his  life  to  save  your  son?  What  he  said  about 
being  pushed  over  the  cliff  is  a  fearful  thing  to  say 
even  in  delirium.  Surely  you  can't  believe  that, 
after  knowing  that  Mr.  Bauer  went  down  the  cliff 
to  save  him." 

She  spoke  with  a  passionate  eagerness  that  was  an 
expression  of  one  of  the  splendid  traits  of  her  per- 
sonality,— a  genuine  love  of  justice.  Poor  Bauer 
hardly  realised  that  she  was  defending  him,  but  he 


324  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

said  to  himself  even  then  that  he  had  never  seen  her 
beauty  flame  out  so  magnificently.  And  then  before 
Mrs.  Van  Shaw  could  reply  to  Helen,  he  said  to  the 
astonishment  of  all  in  the  breathless  group: 

"  I  ought  to  confess  to  you,  Mrs.  Van  Shaw,  that 
just  before  your  son  fell  over  the  cliff,  I  had  a  feel- 
ing of  hatred  for  him  so  strong  that  I — I — think  I 
had  murder  in  my  heart.  I  don't  pretend  to  deny 
that  I  came  the  nearest  that  night  to  being  a  mur- 
derer in  feeling  that  I  ever  came.  But  I  was  at 
least  six  feet  away.  I  never  put  my  hands  on  him. 
His  fall  was  a  pure  accident.  May  I  add  that  the 
moment  he  fell,  my  hatred  seemed  to  leave  me,  and  I 
had  no  thought  except  to  try  to  save  him." 

Mrs.  Van  Shaw  stared  at  Bauer  in  astonishment. 
She  had  never  met  anyone  in  her  circle  of  acquaint- 
ances who  possessed  such  transparent  honesty.  But 
she  was  a  woman  who,  with  all  her  faults,  had  some 
rugged  sense  of  honour  and  was  more  than  an  ordi- 
nary judge  of  character.  She  came  up  to  Bauer 
closer  and  put  out  her  hand. 

"  Mr.  Bauer,"  she  said  frankly,  "  I  believe  what 
you  say.  And  I  can't  let  you  leave  without  express- 
ing my  great  thanks  for  your  brave  act.  Ross  must 
have  been  talking  in  his  delirium.  But  you  know — 
I  remember  one  German  proverb  in  my  schoolgirl 
exercises — *  Jeder  Mutter  Kind  ist  schon?  '  'Every 
mother  thinks  her  own  child  beautiful.'  And  I 
couldn't  understand  how  Ross  could  make  such  a 
statement.  But  why  should  you  have  such  a  hatred 
for  my  poor  boy?  " 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  325 

The  question  was  one  Bauer  could  not  very  well 
answer,  and  he  did  not  even  speak  a  word.  Mrs. 
Van  Shaw  looked  at  Mrs.  Douglas  and  Helen. 
Helen's  cheeks  burned.  Mrs.  Van  Shaw  was  a  woman 
of  the  world  and  she  thought  she  understood  some 
of  the  reason  for  Bauer's  silence  and  Helen's  con- 
fusion. But  she  was  also  convinced  that  something 
more  than  a  jealous  rivalry  between  two  young  men 
must  account  for  the  depth  of  feeling  on  the  Ger- 
man student's  part. 

She  did  not  ask  her  question  again  but  gravely 
said  to  Bauer  as  she  turned  to  go,  "  Mr.  Van  Shaw 
will  want  to  express  his  thanks  to  you.  What  will 
your  address  be?  " 

"  I  suppose  I  shall  be  at  Tolchaco  this  fall  and 
winter.  I  would  rather  not  have  you  or  Mr.  Van 
Shaw  feel  under  any  obligation  to  me  at  all.  Mr. 
Clifford  certainly  did  much  more  than  I  did.  If 
he  had  not  gone  down  there,  your  son  would  not  be 
living." 

"  We  shall  thank  Mr.  Clifford  also.  And  we  shall 
not  forget  either  of  you." 

She  went  back  into  the  little  stone  house  and  a 
few  minutes  later,  Clifford  and  Paul  had  the  horses 
headed  down  by  the  Oraibi  Wash,  bound  for  Tol- 
chaco. 

All  through  that  day's  drive  Helen  Douglas 
hardly  said  a  word,  even  to  her  mother.  She  was 
going  over  the  strange  experiences  which  had  become 
a  part  of  her  life  since  she  had  come  into  this  desert 
land.  The  scenes  at  Oraibi  would  never  become  dim 


326  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

in  her  memory,  and  especially  those  which  had  oc- 
curred during  the  last  two  days. 

Her  probing  of  her  feelings  in  the  analysis  she 
was  somewhat  fond  of  making  of  herself  resulted  in 
a  complete  reversion  of  her  attitude  towards  Ross 
Van  Shaw.  She  said  to  herself  she  dated  that 
change  of  thought  from  his  words  and  actions  that 
morning,  and  especially  on  account  of  his  brutal 
attempt  to  "  get  even,"  as  he  said,  with  Bauer. 
Even  allowing  a  great  deal  for  his  action  as  due  to 
his  mental  and  physical  condition,  the  whole  thing, 
Helen  new  felt  sure,  was  an  indication  of  his  gen- 
eral character.  He  had  been  caught  for  a  little 
while  off  his  guard,  and  in  that  time,  Helen  had  seen 
him  as  he  was.  And  the  vision  she  had  caught  of 
his  perverted  heart  and  mind  was  not  a  pleasant 
vision.  She  even  shuddered  at  herself  as,  with  burn- 
ing face,  she  recalled  how  near  she  had  come,  on 
such  brief  and  slight  acquaintance,  to  giving  herself 
to  such  a  life,  lured  in  great  part  by  the  glamour 
of  that  golden  mirage  into  which  so  many  of  earth's 
brave  and  beautiful  souls  have  hastened,  only  to  find 
its  sparkling  waters  to  be  nothing  but  dust  and  its 
promise  of  luscious  delights  of  the  senses,  nothing 
but  the  dead  sea  fruit  of  bitter  disappointment. 

It  should  be  said  in  all  honest  judgment  of  Helen's 
experiences  at  this  time,  that  the  girl's  final  rejection 
of  all  thought  of  Van  Shaw  (who,  before  she  had 
reached  Milton,  passed  out  of  her  history),  was  due 
to  more  than  the  revulsion  she  felt  over  his  words  in 
the  little  stone  house  at  Oraibi.  It  was  due  as  much 


THE    HIGH   CALLING  327 

to  her  mother's  counsel,  and  in  fact,  to  the  entire 
atmosphere  of  a  healthy,  happy  home  life  which  she 
had  always  known,  and  in  which  Esther  had  trusted 
for  the  final  outcome  of  Helen's  choices.  So  that 
what  seemed  to  her  at  that  time  to  be  a  sudden  act 
due  to  an  accidental  revelation  of  character,  was, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  due  to  a  life  long  training  in  a 
home  which  had  established  in  the  fibre  of  its  whole 
system,  underlying  principles  of  right  thinking  and 
pure  living. 

When,  a  few  days  later,  word  came  to  Tolchaco 
that  Ross  Van  Shaw  had  recovered  sufficiently  to  be 
taken  home  and  that  he  would  probably  suffer  no 
permanent  crippling  from  his  fall,  Helen  found  her- 
self simply  in  a  mild  way  glad  to  know  the  fact,  but 
that  was  all,  and  Van  Shaw  faded  out  of  her  mind 
even  more  quickly  than  he  had  blossomed  into  it. 

All  through  this  first  day's  travel  towards  the 
mission,  Felix  Bauer  was  also  going  through  some 
tumult  of  feeling  over  the  events  that  had  made 
history  since  the  party  had  left  the  mission. 

He  was  sore  at  heart  over  much  that  had  taken 
place  and  could  not  reconstruct  his  former  image 
of  Helen  as  at  heart  a  maidenly,  dignified  girl,  worthy 
of  the  most  exalted  worship.  He  said  to  himself 
that  even  after  she  must  have  known  from  her  mother 
what  Van  Shaw  was,  she  had  gone  to  see  him,  to  say 
good-bye,  to  encourage  him,  to — his  mind  could  find 
no  excuse  for  her  and  do  what  he  would,  he  felt  him- 
self growing  more  and  more  distressed  over  it. 

Mrs.  Douglas  was  a  very  wise  woman  and  Bauer's 


328  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

trouble  did  not  escape  her  notice.  She  understood 
the  reason  for  it,  but  it  was  only  at  the  close  of  the 
day,  during  the  preparations  for  the  night  camp, 
that  she  found  an  opportunity  to  speak  to  Bauer 
alone. 

"  Felix,"  she  said,  using  his  first  name  as  she  had 
begun  to  do  of  late,  to  Bauer's  quiet  pleasure,  "  I 
know  what  is  troubling  you  now.  But  Helen  did  not 
go  over  to  see  Van  Shaw  of  her  own  wish.  She  went 
because  his  mother  came  over  and  brought  a  request 
from  him  to  see  Helen.  No,  I  don't  think  you  need 
to  know  what  was  said  there  in  our  presence.  It 
ought  to  be  enough  for  you  to  know  that  I  am  quite 
sure  Helen  has  passed  the  place  of  her  infatuation, 
if  indeed  she  has  gone  so  far  as  to  yield  to  such  a 
feeling.  I  could  not  let  you  imagine  that  Helen 
was  really  lacking  in  real  maidenly  conduct." 

Bauer's  face  shone  with  delight.  "  Oh,  thank  you, 
Mrs.  Douglas!  I  have  been  doing  her  injustice  all 
day.  You  have  no  idea  how  relieved  I  feel.  And 
I  have  been  sitting  in  judgment  on  everybody.  Oh, 
if  I  were  a  monk  now,  like  one  of  my  ancestors,  I 
would  lash  myself  bloody.  What  a  fool  I  must  be  to 
think  I  have  a  right  to  judge  others  as  I  have.  And 
I  have  let  hatred  and  malice  and  revenge  creep  into 
my  soul  at  the  thought  of  Van  Shaw.  I  don't  see 
how  God  can  forgive  me." 

"  He  has  forgiven  a  good  many  worse  men  than 
you,  Felix,"  said  Mrs.  Douglas,  smiling  at  him. 
"  Don't  lose  any  sleep  over  that." 

Felix  Bauer  slept  like  a  child  that  night  and  as 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  329 

his  habit  was  he  wakened  early  and  as  he  sat  up 
and  saw  the  figure  of  Elijah  Clifford  kneeling  out  on 
the  sand,  the  same  thought  of  God's  benignant  pres- 
ence occurred  to  him  which  the  same  sight  had 
roused  in  him  before.  Clifford  rose  and  came  in  to 
make  the  usual  preparations  for  breakfast. 

"  I  have  been  praying  for  Ansa.  By  this  time  the 
folks  must  have  got  there  if  the  river  is  not  in  flood. 
We  haven't  had  any  runner  bring  bad  news.  I  don't 
know  what  I'd  do  if  Ansa  should  be  taken.  It  would 
just  about  break  Miss  Gray's  heart  too.  She  thinks 
everything  of  that  child.  She  says  she  is  going  to 
train  her  to  be  a  great  teacher  for  her  people." 

Bauer  expressed  his  sympathy  and  asked  if  there 
was  a  good  doctor  to  come  over  to  the  mission  from 
Flagstaff. 

"  Yes.  Or  it's  possible  Doctor  West  will  be  there 
from  Raymond.  He  sometimes  pays  us  a  visit  about 
this  time  of  the  year.  My!  Wouldn't  it  be  provi- 
dential if  he  should  come  along  for  Ansa.  And  he 
could  dissect  you  at  the  same  time  and  like  as  not 
find  out  that  your  hemorrhages  don't  come  from 
your  lungs,  and  that  you  haven't  got  consumption 
any  more  than  I  have.  The  doctors  sometimes  make 
mistakes  in  their  diagnoses  you  know.  Would  you 
feel  bad  to  learn  that  you  didn't  have  tuberculosis 
after  all?  " 

"  I  believe  I  would  be  able  to  bear  the  news  if  it 
was  broken  to  me  gently." 

"  But  maybe  Miss  Helen  wouldn't  pity  you  so 
much,  eh?  " 


330  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

"  I  don't  want  to  be  pitied." 

Clifford  looked  up  from  his  fire  approvingly  at 
Bauer. 

"  You're  right,  my  son.  Pity  from  a  girl  when 
you  want  something  else  from  her  is  like  apple  pie 
minus  the  apple.  It's  pretty  dry  fodder.  But 
say"  Elijah  abruptly  changed  the  topic  of  talk, 
"  What  about  Walter  Douglas  ?  He's  a  likely  fel- 
low, isn't  he  ?  Bound  to  make  his  mark,  isn't  he  ?  " 

Bauer  stared  a  little,  not  knowing  why  Clifford 
was  asking  the  question. 

"  Yes,  Walter  is  going  to  surprise  everyone  with 
his  talents  one  of  these  days." 

"  And  he's  a  good  fellow  morally  and  all  that  I 
suppose?  " 

"  He  certainly  is.  I  don't  know  a  better.  Any- 
one that  has  such  a  mother  as  Mrs.  Douglas  can't 
help  being  good." 

Clifford  was  silent  while  he  adjusted  various 
utensils  around  the  fire. 

"  Yes,  Mrs.  Douglas  is  an  angel.  Mr.  Douglas 
will  never  have  to  buy  an  aeroplane  for  her.  She's 
got  her  own  wings.  And  some  day  they'll  carry  her 
right  up  to  heaven."  Then,  after  another  pause: 

"  How  old  is  Walter?  " 

"  Twenty-four." 

"  How  old  should  you  take  Miss  Gray  to  be?  " 

Bauer  was  surprised  at  the  question. 

"  I  don't  know.     I  am  a  poor  hand  at  guessing." 

"  I  know,  because  she  told  me.  She  is  twenty- 
eight.  How  old  would  you  take  me  to  be?  " 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  331 

"  I  have  no  idea." 

"I'm  just  thirty  next  Thanksgiving.  When  I 
was  born  in  Vermont  thirty  years  ago  turkeys  were 
only  eight  cents  a  pound.  Now  they  are  twenty-six 
and  we  can't  raise  'em  out  here  at  any  price  on  ac- 
count of  the  cost  of  feed.  I'd  give  most  anything 
for  a  good  plateful  of  turkey  with  stuffing  and  fixin's. 
But  there's  lots  of  things  in  this  world  we  can't 
have.  We  must  learn  to  get  along  on  mutton  and 
pancakes  and  canned  ginger  bread.  Such  is  life." 

It  seemed  to  Bauer  that  Clifford  was  a  little  sober 
over  his  philosophy.  But  during  the  day  he  was 
jolly  and  high  spirited,  keeping  the  whole  company 
at  concert  pitch  with  his  stories  and  fun.  But 
through  it  all  ran  a  thread  of  sombre  hue  as  the 
thought  of  Ansa  obtruded. 

When  the  river  was  reached  the  party  anxiously 
scanned  its  muddy  stretch  to  see  if  it  was  too  high 
to  ford.  Big  rains  had  come  down  from  the  moun- 
tains during  their  absence  from  the  mission  and  the 
banks  were  pressing  full.  Elijah,  however,  thought 
it  safe  to  make  the  ford,  and  after  a  somewhat  ex- 
citing and  perilous  passage  they  got  across  and  by 
night  of  that  day  were  at  the  Mission  where  they 
were  joyfully  welcomed  by  the  mission  workers  and 
the  news  that  Dr.  West  had  come  in  two  days  before, 
and  had  declared  Ansa  out  of  danger  and  rapidly  re- 
covering. After  supper  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Masters, 
Miss  Clifford,  Miss  Gray  and  Elijah,  the  Douglases 
and  Bauer,  and  Dr.  West  met  in  the  school  room 
and  held  a  Thanksgiving  service.  The  last  thing 


332  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

that  night  that  Bauer  was  conscious  of  was  the 
memory  of  Elijah  Clifford's  prayer.  He  had  never 
heard  anything  to  equal  it  for  tenderness  and  exalta- 
tion of  feeling. 

The  Douglases  were  to  leave  for  Milton  in  three 
days.  The  last  day  of  their  stay  at  the  Mission 
Helen  was  sitting  on  the  old  cottonwood  log  by  the 
river  when  Miss  Gray  came  down  and  sat  by  her, 
going  over  some  of  the  desert  experiences. 

After  a  while  Helen  said :  "  We  have  not  had  any 
opportunity  to  talk  over  the  matter  I  mentioned  at 
Oraibi.  I  don't  think  it's  necessary  now." 

Miss  Gray  looked  very  much  pleased. 

"  I  am  more  than  relieved  to  hear  you  say  that. 
If  I  had  thought  there  was  any  danger  to  you — I 
would  have  warned  you — I  did  not  realise  that  there 
was  any " 

"  There  was,  for  a  little  while,"  Helen  said  in  a 
low  voice,  not  looking  up.  "  It  has  passed." 

"  Anything  I  could  say  now  would  only  revive  a 
painful  memory.  Only,  I  feel  as  if  out  of  justice  to 
what  your  mother  may  have  said  to  you  I  ought  to 
confirm  it.  Helen — if  you  had  come  to  such  an  im- 
possible act  as  becoming  the  wife  of  Ross  Van  Shaw, 
it  would  have  been  the  ruin  of  your  life.  I  must  say 
this — Van  Shaw  was  engaged  to  my  sister  during  his 
first  year  at  Burrton.  She  is  remarkably  like  you 
in  many  ways.  A  great  lover  of  wealth  and  luxury. 
Van  Shaw  broke  her  heart  by  his  conduct.  Let  us 
not  say  any  more.  I  did  not  mean  to  say  this 
much."  Miss  Gray  exhibited  an  agitation  that 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  333 

Helen  had  never  seen  in  her  before.  "  You  need 
not  fear  for  me  any  more,"  Helen  said  earnestly. 
"  I  begin  to  see  more  and  more  the  danger  I  was  in. 
I  am  thankful  to  escape." 

She  began  to  tell  Miss  Gray  about  the  meeting 
between  Mrs.  Van  Shaw  and  Bauer.  That  led 
naturally  to  enthusiastic  comments  on  the  bravery 
of  Bauer  and  Clifford. 

"  Your  brother  Walter  said  when  he  left  for  Mil- 
ton the  day  of  our  arrival  here  that  he  would  have 
given  anything  to  have  had  the  courage  to  do  what 
Bauer  did." 

"  It  seems  to  me  that  Mr.  Clifford  was  just  as 
brave." 

"  Yes,  only  he  insists  that  he  had  a  lantern  and 
that  he  was  greatly  helped  when  he  got  down  on  the 
ledge  by  having  the  lantern  to  brace  his  feet  against. 
Did  you  ever  see  anyone  so  absurd  or  so — brave — 
as  Elijah  Clifford?" 

"  No,  unless  it  is  yourself." 

Miss  Gray  blushed. 

"  I  am  not  brave.  I  am  a  coward  in  many  ways. 
Why,  I  am  down  here  because  I  delight  to  do  this 
work.  It  is  no  cross  for  me.  And — in  other  ways 
I  am  a  coward.  And — I  am  very  proud.  Tell  me, 
Helen,  do  you  think  of  Elijah  Clifford  as — as  an  il- 
literate man?  Does  he  seem  to  you  like — like  an 
ignorant  person?" 

Helen  was  astonished  at  the  question  and  could 
not  help  noticing  her  friend's  embarrassment. 

"  No.     It  has  always  seemed  to  me  that  Mr.  Clif- 


334  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

ford  was  a  remarkably  intelligent  and  refined  char- 
acter for  one  who  had  never  had  a  college  education. 
I  would  never  think  of  him  as  illiterate  or  ignorant. 
He  uses  beautiful  language.  I  have  never  heard 
such  English  as  he  uses  in  his  prayers.  And  he  is  a 
good  linguist.  I  heard  Mr.  Masters  say  only  this 
morning  that  he  didn't  know  what  he  would  do  with- 
out Clifford's  help  in  translation." 

Miss  Gray  looked  pleased,  but  her  face  glowed  in 
anticipation  of  what  she  was  about  to  say. 

"  Helen,  I  am  going  to  confide  in  you.  There  is 
no  one  here  at  the  mission  I  want  to  share  with  me 
in  this  and — and — I  feel  as  if  I  wanted  to  talk  with 
you  about  it.  Mr.  Clifford  has  asked  me  two  differ- 
ent times  to  be  his  wife,  and  each  time  I  have  refused. 
And  each  time  it  was  not  because  I  did  not  respect 
and  admire  him,  but  because  I  thought  I  did  not 
love  him  and  most  of  all  because  I  felt  superior  to 
him  in  education.  I  have  been  to  college.  It 
seemed  to  me  as  if  I  should  be  marrying  beneath  my 
rank  if  I  were  to  be  his  wife.  Do  you  think  I 
should?" 

"  Should  what?     Be  his  wife?  " 

Lucy  Gray  blushed  and  laughed. 

"  You  know  what  I  meant.  Should  I  make  a  mis- 
take in  marrying  him  or  does  it  seem  to  you  that  I 
should  run  the  risk  of  being  disappointed  in  him  all 
the  time  simply  because  I  am  college  bred  and  he  is 
not?" 

"  No,"  said  Helen  frankly.  "  I  believe  Mr.  Clif- 
ford is  the  kind  of  man  to  satisfy  you  in  that  re- 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  335 

spect.  He  is  studying  all  the  time.  Have  you 
noticed  he  has  learned  an  astonishing  lot  of  German 
from  Baeur  since  he  came?  I  believe  he  can  almost 
read  Hermann  and  Dorothea  now."  Helen  said  it 
with  a  significant  emphasis  which  made  Miss  Gray 
blush  again.  And  then  she  added — "  Lucy,  you 
said  you  thought  you  did  not  love  him  and  that  was 
the  reason  you  said  no.  Have  you  changed  your 
mind?" 

"  Yes.  Oh,  I  can't  help  myself !  Let  me  tell  you. 
That  night  at  Oraibi  when  I  first  knew  that  Elijah 
had  gone  down  there  to  rescue  Bauer  and  Van  Shaw 
I  learned  how  much  he  meant  to  me.  I  believe  I 
would  have  gone  there  myself  if  Mr.  Masters  and 
you  father  had  not  been  quick  witted  enough  to 
take  the  rope  the  workmen  had  left  out  there  by  the 
great  rock  cistern,  the  first  one  in  all  Oraibi.  When 
the  three  men  were  pulled  up  you  remember  Mr.  Clif- 
ford was  the  last.  I  know  that  I  pulled  with  the 
others,  but  I  believe  I  never  thought  of  either  Bauer 
or  Van  Shaw.  All  I  cared  for  was  Elijah.  I  blis- 
tered my  hands,  see !  "  She  opened  her  palms  for 
Helen  to  look.  "  But  I  never  told  anyone.  And 
even  when  he  was  telling  that  night  about  it,  I 
seemed  to  see  him  slipping,  slipping  over  that  hor- 
rible ledge  and  I  just  couldn't  help  actually  putting 
out  my  hand  to  draw  him  back.  They  say  that  col- 
lege graduate  young  women  don't  know  how  to  fall 
in  love  and  that  they  don't  get  married  because 
young  men  are  afraid  of  them,  they  are  so  prim  and 
intellectual  and  superior,  but,  oh,  Helen,  I  am  almost 


336  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

ready  to  propose  to  Elijah  myself.  I  love  him  so 
much.  Isn't  that  dreadful  for  a  schoolma'am  and  a 
college  graduate,  and  especially  after  she  has  re- 
fused him  twice?  What  would  he  say?  " 

"  I  think  he  would  say  yes,"  replied  Helen,  de- 
lighted to  be  the  confidant  in  this  desert  romance. 

"  I  didn't  mean  that.  I  mean  what  would  he  say 
if  he  knew  what  I  have  been  confessing  to  you?  I 
would  lose  his  respect." 

"  And  gain  his  love,"  laughed  Helen.  "  Lucy,  I 
don't  believe  it  is  all  hopeless.  And  you  don't  need 
to  fear  that  you  are  too  intellectually  superior  to 
Mr.  Clifford.  After  you  are  married  you  will  find 
that  he  will  go  on  developing  mentally." 

"  He  is  my  superior  now  in  nearly  every  true 
thing,"  said  Miss  Gray.  The  blush  was  still  on  her 
cheek  and  the  love  light  in  her  eye.  At  that  moment 
she  was  recalled  to  the  mission  building  by  one  of  the 
children.  As  she  left  Helen  she  said  to  her,  "  I 
trust  you  to  respect  my  confidence." 

Helen  sat  on  the  old  cottonwood,  her  eyes  on  the 
fiver,  her  thoughts  musing  over  her  friend's  story. 
She  was  so  absorbed  in  it  that  she  did  not  notice 
Bauer  until  he  was  near  the  end  of  the  log. 

"  Oh ! "  she  said  a  little  nervously  and  then 
quickly,  "Won't  you  sit  down?  This  seems  to  be 
the  only  seat  in  the  park." 

Bauer  sat  down  gravely  and  Helen  asked  him 
politely  how  he  was  feeling. 

Bauer's  face  lightened  so  that  for  a  second  he 
looked  almost  handsome. 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  837 

"  That  is  partly  what  I  came  down  to  tell  you. 
Dr.  West  has  given  me  a  very  careful  examination. 
He  says  my  hemorrhages  are  not  permanent.  There 
is  no  reason,  he  says,  why  I  may  not  entirely  re- 
cover, even  to  the  extent  of  going  back  to  school 
again." 

"  Will  you  go  back  soon?  " 

"  No,  he  advises  me  to  stay  here  this  winter.  I 
can  help  Mr.  Masters  with  the  trading,  handling  the 
rugs  that  are  sold  for  profit  for  the  mission  work. 
I  begin  to  feel  quite  strong  again." 

He  sat  there  silently  watching  the  thick  muddy 
flow  of  the  stream.  His  face  in  repose  was  almost 
stern.  Helen  glanced  at  it  timidly  and  could  hardly 
realise  that  she  was  sitting  so  near  to  a  real  hero, 
one  who  had  risked  his  life  to  save  an  enemy, 

"  I  haven't  ever  told  you,  Mr.  Bauer,  what 
admiration  I  feel  for  your  act  that  night. 
I  think  it  was  the  most  courageous  thing  I  ever 
knew." 

Bauer  turned  his  head  and  looked  full  at  her. 
His  eyes  were,  as  Helen  had  once  said,  the  most 
splendid  she  had  ever  seen.  This  time  they  looked 
at  her  with  a  calm  sadness  that  compelled  her  own 
to  waver  and  finally  to  drop. 

"  Loben  ist  nicht  lieben,"  said  Bauer  firmly.  It 
was  the  nearest  he  had  ever  come  to  declaring  him- 
self, in  words.  And  Helen  was  the  most  deficient 
girl,  Walter  always  said,  when  it  came  to  languages. 
She  did  not  know  German  and  did  not  care  to  learn. 
Miss  Gray  had  laughed  at  her  more  than  once  on  ac- 


338  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

count  of  her  obtuseness.  So  Helen  now,  with  some 
heightened  colour,  said  as  she  raised  her  eyes. 

"  What  does  that  mean?  " 

"  Loben  ist  nicht  Lieben,"  repeated  Bauer. 

"  Won't  you  translate  it  ?  "  asked  Helen  petu- 
lantly. "  You  know  I  never  understood  German." 

"  I — can't,"  said  Bauer.  And  to  Helen's  sur- 
prise, he  abruptly  got  up  and  walked  away. 

"  Loben  ist  nicht  lieben,"  she  softly  murmured. 
"  I'll  ask  Lucy  what  it  means.  But  he  needn't  have 
gone  so.  He  has  no  manners.  I  do  not  think  he  is 
nice." 

That  night  after  supper  she  found  Miss  Gray 
alone  in  the  school  room. 

"  Lucy,  what  does  this  German  mean.  As  near 
as  I  can  pronounce  it,  it  sounds  like  this.  '  Loben 
ist  nicht  lieben  '?  " 

"  Say  it  again." 

Helen  repeated  the  sentence. 

"  Oh !  Why,  it  sounds  like  '  praising  is  not  lov- 
ing.' Where  did  you  hear  it?  " 

"  Oh,  I  heard  it.  I  wondered  what  it  meant.  You 
know  I  don't  care  for  German." 

"Nor  for  the  German?"  Miss  Gray  ventured. 

"  Nor  for  the  German,"  Helen  said  after  a  pause. 
And  that  was  as  near  as  she  came  to  exchanging  con- 
fidences with  Miss  Gray.  But  was  there  anything 
to  give  in  exchange? 

She  asked  the  question  several  times  on  the  way 
home.  Her  good-bye  to  Bauer  had  been  common- 
place enough.  He  had  ventured  at  the  last  moment 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  339 

after  the  party  was  seated  in  the  wagon  ready  for 
the  drive  to  Canon  Diablo  to  hand  up  a  book  to 
Helen. 

"  Would  you  accept  this  to  use  on  your  journey? 
You  may  find  it  help  pass  the  time.  It's  the  collec- 
tion of  desert  flowers  I've  been  making." 

Helen  was  really  pleased  and  expressed  her  thanks 
warmly.  But  nothing  more  was  said  except  the 
regular  good-byes  as  the  Douglasses  waved  their 
farewells  to  all  the  mission  people  on  the  little 
knoll. 

When  she  was  on  the  train  and  started  for  home 
Helen  found  on  examination  that  Bauer's  modest 
volume  was  in  reality  composed  of  a  rare  collection 
of  desert  plants,  and  in  the  back  leaves  of  the  book 
were  several  photographs  of  desert  scenes,  including 
a  dozen  of  Oraibi  and  the  snake  dance  itself.  She 
found  her  own  person  in  several  of  the  pictures,  and 
the  farther  she  travelled  from  Tolchaco  the  more 
persistently  her  mind  travelled  back  to  that  en- 
chanted land  of  adventure  and  heroism  and  love  of 
humanity.  She  sighed  to  think  that  her  own  life 
seemed  so  commonplace.  And  always  there 
obtruded  on  her  mind  the  thought  of  Bauer  as  he 
sat  there  by  the  river  looking  at  her  out  of  his  great 
brown  eyes  and  saying,  "  Loben  ist  nicht  lieben." 
And  always  as  the  days  flew  by  and  she  resumed  her 
special  work  in  music  at  home,  the  figure  grew  more 
heroic  and  dignified  the  longer  she  mused  upon  it, 
while  over  all  shone  the  desert  sun  and  the  white 
translucent  light,  with  the  San  Francisco  mountains 


THE    HIGH    CALLING 

calmly  lifting  up  their  cool  blackness  against  a  tur- 
quoise sky. 

Two  months  later  it  was  Thanksgiving  time  at  the 
Mission.  Somehow,  Elijah  Clifford  gradually  be- 
came aware  that  things  were  going  on  that  were  be- 
ing kept  from  him.  Bauer  made  a  mysterious  trip 
to  Flagstaff  and  when  he  came  back,  Mrs.  Masters 
and  Miss  Clifford  carried  several  packages  into  the 
house  which  Elijah  never  had  a  chance  to  examine. 
His  Yankee  curiosity  finally  got  the  better  of  him. 

"  What  is  all  this  ?  "  he  asked  Bauer  one  evening. 
"  Is  someone  going  to  get  married  ?  They  needn't 
keep  it  from  me.  But  I  would  like  to  be  invited." 

"  You'll  be  invited  all  right,"  said  Bauer  with  his 
rare  smile. 

When  Thanksgiving  Day  dawned,  Masters  suc- 
ceeded with  what  seemed  like  a  perfectly  natural 
excuse  to  get  Clifford  to  take  a  forenoon  trip  with 
him  up  to  Touchiniteel's  hogon  to  see  the  old  man 
and  take  him  a  few  luxuries  for  his  dinner.  When 
they  returned,  the  Thanksgiving  dinner  was  all 
ready. 

It  was  impossible  to  surprise  Elijah  Clifford  en- 
tirely, for  before  he  and  Masters  had  stepped  into 
the  house  he  said,  "  I  smell  turkey." 

Masters  laughed.  And  as  Clifford  stepped  into 
the  dining  room  everyone  greeted  him  with  a  shout 
of  welcome. 

There  on  the  table  in  all  its  glory  was  a  fourteen 
pound  turkey  surrounded  by  all  the  "  fixin's." 
Elijah  Clifford  was  simply  overcome. 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  341 

"  Evidently,"  he  said  when  the  mission  family 
was  all  seated  and  were  being  served,  "  Mr.  Van 
Shaw  has  sold  one  of  his  railroads  and  bought 
this  bird  to  express  his  gratitude  to  Mr.  Bauer 
for  his  recent  trapeze  performance.  Otherwise 
I  don't  see  how  we  can  afford  such  hilarious  lux- 
ury." 

"  This  is  Mr.  Bauer's  treat  to  you  and  us  on  your 
birthday,"  said  Mr.  Masters.  "  Felix,  I'm  going  to 
tell.  Your  modesty  will  not  save  you.  It  seems 
that  our  friend's  incubator  has  begun  its  sales  in  fine 
shape  and  the  first  royalties  came  in  to  Mr.  Bauer  a 
few  days  ago.  What  does  he  do  but  come  to  me  and 
tell  me  what  you  said  the  other  day  about  wanting 
a  taste  of  turkey  again.  So  this  is  Mr.  Bauer's 
treat.  He  insisted  on  getting  everything  down  to 
the  nuts  and  raisins." 

"  You  have  all  been  so  good  to  me  that  I  couldn't 
repay  it  if  I  bought  turkeys  for  every  meal.  And 
I  don't  forget,  of  course,"  he  added  with  a  grateful 
look  at  Elij  ah,  "  that  I  owe  my  life  to  you.  I  am 
riot  trying  to  pay  even  with  fabulously  high  priced 
turkeys." 

"  Well,  of  course,  I  had  the  advantage  over  you 
down  there  in  having  a  lantern  to  brace  my  feet 
against.  You  hadn't  a  thing.  Not  even  Van  Shaw. 
But  don't  mention  it.  It  was  no  trouble.  '  Don't 
think  of  such  a  thing,'  as  Miss  Gray  says.  And 
after  all,  I  don't  know  what  would  have  happened  to 
all  of  us  down  there  if  the  folks  at  the  top  hadn't 
let  that  rope  down  just  in  time." 


342  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

"  Everybody  is  a  hero  in  this  country,"  said 
Bauer. 

"  And  the  turkey  is  the  biggest  of  all,"  said 
Elijah,  who  was  doing  it  full  justice.  "We  all 
hope  Mr.  Bauer's  incubator  will  continue  to  head 
the  list  of  the  six  best  sellers.  And  say,  Bauer,  why 
not  get  out  a  special  illustrated  Thanksgiving  edi- 
tion incubator  made  to  hatch  out  nothing  but  tur- 
keys. At  the  price  you  must  have  paid  over  at 
Flagstaff  for  this  one,  it  wouldn't  take  long  before 
you  could  make  Van  Shaw's  railroads  look  like  a 
blind  trail  through  the  Grand  Canon." 

That  Thanksgiving  Day  dinner  was  a  memorable 
one  at  Tolchaco.  Everyone  was  in  fine  spirits. 
Clifford  kept  everyone  in  a  roar  with  his  remarks. 
Bauer  surprised  the  company  by  telling  two  funny 
stories  from  the  Fliegende  Blaetter.  Clifford's  sis- 
ter laughed  so  hard  she  almost  choked  on  a  bone. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Masters  grew  unusually  witty.  And 
Lucy  Gray,  while  not  in  any  way  distinguished  for 
any  brilliant  remarks,  glowed  with  a  quiet  happiness 
all  through  the  meal  and  looked  so  attractive  that 
Elijah  Clifford  more  than  once  shot  an  approving 
glance  at  her  as  she  sat  by  Mrs.  Masters  and  in- 
sisted on  filling  up  Clifford's  plate  whenever  a  spot 
on  it  showed  any  signs  of  being  uncovered. 

After  the  dishes  had  been  washed  by  the  gentlemen 
who  gallantly  offered  to  do  that  task,  the  ladies 
sauntered  up  the  river  to  inspect  the  new  site  for 
the  new  school  house  which  Mr.  Douglas  thought  he 
could  secure  for  the  Mission. 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  343 

It  was  a  desert  day,  clear  and  warm  in  the  sun. 
Masters  and  Bauer  went  out  to  inspect  some  pottery 
recently  found  near  an  excavation  for  a  well. 
Elijah  Clifford  busied  himself  at  the  little  barn  with 
some  plans  for  an  improved  hobble  to  use  on  an 
unusually  cunning  and  inventive  pony. 

When  he  stepped  out  of  the  barn  and  looked  over 
to  the  river  bank  he  saw  Miss  Gray  sitting  on  the 
old  cottonwood  log.  The  other  ladies  had  gone 
back  to  the  mission  buildings. 

Clifford  stopped  where  he  was  a  minute  and  then 
slowly  walked  over  to  the  log  and  sat  down. 

"  That  was  a  good  dinner,"  he  said,  a  little  awk- 
wardly, as  he  looked  first  at  Miss  Gray  and  then  at 
the  river. 

"  Wasn't  it  ?  "  said  Miss  Gray  with  even  more  en- 
thusiasm than  the  subj  ect  called  for.  "  Did  you  en- 
joyit?" 

"  Did  I?  I  haven't  got  over  it  yet.  Somehow  I 
feel  as  if  it  would  be  wrong  to  eat  any  canned  goods 
for  quite  a  while.  A  sort  of  uncomplimentary  re- 
flection on  Bauer.  I  wouldn't  have  eaten  so  much 
only  I  didn't  want  to  hurt  his  feelings  by  appearing 
not  to  appreciate  his  treat.  Isn't  he  a  fine  fellow?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Miss  Gray.  She  did  not  seem  very 
talkative  and  appeared  very  nervous  for  a  young 
woman  who  had  figured  as  a  life  saver  on  various 


occasions. 

M 


I  wish  the  Douglases  had  been  here,  don't 
you?"  asked  Clifford.  He  had  his  knife  out  and, 
Yankee-like,  was  busy  shaving  pieces  off  the  old  log. 


344  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

It  seemed  to  help  him  in  keeping  up  what  seemed  to 
promise  to  be  a  one-sided  talk.  "  Yes.  I — I've 
had  a  letter  from  Milton.  ^Would  you  like  to  read 
it?" 

"  Sure.  I  always  did  enjoy  Miss  Helen's  talk.  I 
expect  her  letters  are  as  interesting." 

"  This  isn't  from  Helen.  It's  from  her  brother," 
Miss  Gray  blushed  as  Clifford  quickly  looked  up  at 
her.  "  But  I  would  like  to  have  you  read  it  and  give 
me  your  advice." 

Clifford  took  the  letter  without  a  word.  He 
opened  it  slowly  and  read  it.  Then  he  looked  at 
Miss  Gray  with  a  puzzled  look. 

"  The  young  man  seems  to  want  to  open  a  corre- 
spondence with  you.  That  is  certainly  all  right. 
But  you  don't  want  my  advice  about  that,  do  you?  " 

"  Oh !  I  meant  to  give  you  this  letter.  It  is  the 
second  one  I  received."  Miss  Gray  handed  Clifford 
another  letter,  and  he  gravely  read  that  through 
slowly. 

"  He  seems  to  be  making  good  progress,"  was 
Elijah's  comment.  "  In  the  first  letter  he  wants  to 
know  if  he  can  write,  and  in  the  second  he  wants  to 
know  if  you  will  be  Mrs.  Douglas  some  time.  I  call 
that  going  some.  But  it's  no  more  than  I  ex- 
pected." 

Miss  Gray  was  almost  crying. 

"  Isn't  it  absurd  ?  What  do  you  think  I  ought  to 
do  ?  What  would  you  say  to  him  ?  " 

Elijah  Clifford  looked  at  Lucy  Gray  strangely. 
And  then  he  said  very,  very  quietly : 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  345 

"  Miss  Gray,  do  you  think  you  ought  to  ask  me 
such  a  question?  Answer  it  out  of  your  own  heart. 
I  have  no  business  to  advise  you  in  such  a  matter." 

Lucy  Gray  gave  him  one  searching  look,  as  her 
face  flamed. 

"  Give  me  the  letter,"  was  all  she  said. 

Elijah  handed  it  to  her,  and  in  some  way  their 
fingers  touched  as  Lucy  took  the  letter,  and  then 
she  deliberately  tore  it  into  bits  and  scattered  the 
pieces  down  upon  the  top  of  the  log. 

A  sudden  light  came  into  Elijah  Clifford's  eyes. 

"  Is  that  your  answer  to  it?  "  he  said,  moving  over 
on  the  log  a  little  nearer  to  Lucy. 

"  Yes,"  she  answered,  and  it  is  a  historical  fact 
that  she  did  not  move  back  any.  But  she  said  after- 
wards that  she  was  sitting  near  the  end  of  the  log 
and  couldn't  have  moved  far  without  falling  off  and 
that  Elijah  knew  it. 

"  Then  you  don't  need  my  advice?  What  made 
you  ask  for  it?  " 

Lucy  Gray,  prim  school  ma'am  as  she  had  called 
herself,  answered  between  crying  and  laughing,  "  Oh, 
I  don't  care  for  him.  Why,  he  is  only  twenty-four 
and  I  am  twenty-eight.  And  I  can  never  leave  these 
people  here.  I  am  so  in  love  with  them." 

"With  all  of  them?"  asked  Elijah  desperately. 

"  Yes.     But  with  some  more  than  others." 

Again  a  light  came  into  Clifford's  face  as  he  moved 
up  a  little  nearer.  The  bits  of  paper  which  had 
been  poor  Walter's  letter  began  to  fall  over  the  sides 
of  the  log.  But  Elijah  Clifford  was  pale  as  he  said: 


346  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

"  Lucy,  I  don't  want  to  make  another  mistake. 
I  have  not  been  able  to  conceal  my  feeling  for  you 
and  I  realise  the  great  distance  between  us  when  it 
comes  to  education.  I'm  not  college  bred.  And  no 
one  feels  it  more  than  I  do.  But  I'm  not  too  old  to 
learn.  I'm  only  thirty.  And  I  find  my  brain  works 
pretty  well  when  I  have  a  motive.  I  can  almost  read 
Herrmann  und  Dorothea.  And  I've  committed  no 
end  of  Heine.  I  can  say  *  Die  schonste  die  Jung- 
frauen  sitszet,  Dort  oben  wunderbar  '  and  a  lot  more. 
But — I  don't  dare  ask  you  again  to  be  my  wife  un- 
less— unless — I  can  be  sure  that  the  differences  be- 
tween us  will  not  make  you  unhappy.  But,  oh,  if 
this  happiness  could  be  mine !  You  cannot  love  these 
people  more  than  I  do.  Or  yearn  over  them  more. 
And  we  are  not  so  far  apart  after  all." 

"  I'm  sure,"  said  Lucy  Gray,  looking  up  at  him, 
tears  flowing  down  her  cheeks.  "  I'm  sure,  Elijah, 
that  we  are  not  so  very  far  apart  in  any  way.  And 
if  you  want  to  be  happy  I  am  sure " 

She  did  not  need  to  say  any  more.  Elijah  Clif- 
ford saw  happiness  looking  into  his  eyes  out  of  hers 
and  he  would  have  been  very  much  lacking  in  educa- 
tion if  he  had  not  then  and  there  claimed  his  own. 

They  did  not  hear  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Masters  ap- 
proach because  sand  does  not  echo  under  peoples' 
feet,  but  they  heard  Mr.  Masters  say  to  his  wife: 

"  I'm  sorry  we  left  the  kodak  up  at  the  house. 
I've  been  hoping  and  praying  for  this  for  the  last 
two  years.  And  now  my  prayers  have  been  an- 
swered, I  would  like  to  have  some  record  of  the  fact." 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  347 

Elijah  Clifford  and  Lucy  Gray  stood  up  side  by 
side.  They  were  not  embarrassed  nor  confused. 
The  light  of  heaven  seemed  to  shine  on  them  out  of 
that  Thanksgiving  Day  glow  in  the  desert  sky. 
Their  happiness  had  a  sacred  divine  atmosphere 
about  it  that  checked  even  as  joyful  a  word  of  con- 
gratulation as  Mr.  Masters  was  about  to  speak. 
Ansa  had  come  running  down  from  the  Mission 
and  seeing  Miss  Gray  and  Clifford  there  she  had 
come  up  and  put  her  little  hands  one  in  each  of 
theirs. 

"  Ah !  "  cried  Masters.  "  This  is  the  picture  we 
want ! "  while  Lucy  and  Elij  ah  standing  there  by 
Ansa  spoke  of  the  years  they  were  now  to  live  to- 
gether in  the  sacred  union  of  husband  and  wife,  con- 
secrated heart  and  mind  to  the  love  of  a  neglected 
people,  their  human  happiness  intensified  and 
purified  by  the  service  they  were  to  give  as  one  in 
answer  to  that  which  spoke  to  them  even  louder  than 
their  own  earthly  love — the  sound  of  the  High  Call- 
ing. 

If,  as  is  easy  for  the  writer  and  reader,  we  agree 
to  let  a  few  years  slip  by,  as  they  have  a  way  of  do- 
ing whether  we  wish  to  let  them  or  not,  we  shall  find 
ourselves  again  in  Milton  at  the  home  of  the 
Douglases. 

It  is  Thanksgiving  Day  again  and  Esther  seems 
to  have  even  more  than  the  usual  happy  look  on  her 
face  as  she  says  to  Helen: 

"  Isn't  it  remarkable  that  Walter  coming  up  from 


348  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

the  Isthmus  is  going  to  bring  Bauer  with  him  from 
Berlin?  The  world  is  getting  smaller  every  day." 

"  We  must  learn  to  say  '  Professor '  Bauer, 
mother.  You  know  Walter  wrote  that  he  has  sev- 
eral honorary  degrees  conferred  on  him  for  his 
inventions.  I  understand  he  is  held  in  high  respect 
at  all  the  universities." 

"  He  will  never  be  anything  but  plain  Felix  Bauer 
to  me,  Helen.  And  I  hope  his  honours  have  not 
spoiled  him.  I  don't  believe  they  could." 

Helen  is  silent  as  she  sits  down  by  the  window 
which  commands  a  view  of  the  front  walk.  Time 
has  dealt  generously  and  kindly  with  her.  The 
girlhood  has  ripened  into  the  stately  strong  woman- 
hood. Many  suitors  have  come  and  gone,  among 
them  some  noble  gentlemen  who  have  received  their 
answers  from  her  with  sore  hearts,  but  Helen  still 
has  not  seen  her  ideal  of  the  romantic  days  and  her 
heart  is  yet — she  says  to  herself — free — at  least  she 
has  refused  both  wealth  and  high  character  for  the 
vision  she  has  cherished  all  these  years  of  the  name- 
less one  who,  so  far,  she  says,  has  never  appeared  to 
her.  And  all  through  this  testing,  refining  process 
of  growth,  she  has  developed  into  a  spirit  of  rare 
strength  and  grace,  of  whom  Paul  and  Esther  have 
been  increasingly  proud. 

Two  young  men  come  briskly  up  the  walk.  Mrs. 
Douglas  opens  the  door  and  rushes  out  on  the  porch 
as  Helen  rises  to  tell  her  they  are  coming. 

Walter  laughingly  lifts  Esther  off  her  feet  as  he 
kisses  her  and  then  turns  to  Helen.  Evidently  he 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  349 

has  not  broken  his  heart  over  that  romance  in  the 
desert. 

First  greetings  over  he  announced  Bauer  just  as 
Paul  steps  into  the  front  room. 

"  Professor  Felix  Bauer,  F.  R.  G.  S.,  F.  S.  S.  K. 
L.  G.  X.  Y.  Z.  and  others.  Isn't  he  great?  " 

Esther  simply  says,  "  Felix,  welcome.  I  do  not 
know  how  to  say  '  professor.' ' 

Bauer  lifts  her  hands  to  his  lips.  Helen  looks  at 
him  as  if  she  were  seeing  some  new  vision  at  a  dis- 
tance. Felix  Bauer  smiles  in  the  old  way  and  says: 

"  Mrs.  Douglas,  I  don't  care  for  these  titles.  I 
would  gladly  give  a  bushel  of  them  for  one  kind 
word  from  Walter's  mother." 

He  looks  at  Helen  as  he  speaks  and  Helen  notes 
his  clear,  strong  accent  and  the  self-control  and 
ease  of  a  man  who  has  met  the  world  and  looked  it  in 
the  face  without  fear  and  without  shame. 

It  is  only  when  they  are  seated  at  the  table  that 
Helen  has  opportunity  to  note  Bauer's  strong  face 
and  figure,  and  wonder  at  the  transformation  time 
and  testing  have  made  in  him.  He  still  speaks  in 
the  slow  deliberate  fashion  of  the  other  days,  but 
he  is  a  full  grown  man  now,  conscious  of  power  and 
Helen  has  to  readjust  her  picture  of  him  as  she  last 
saw  him. 

As  the  talk  goes  on,  Paul's  probing  questions, 
aided  by  Walter  and  his  mother,  bring  out  the  facts 
about  Bauer  which  his  own  modesty  would  keep  in 
the  background. 

Sent  to  Berlin  to  make   special  studies   of  new 


350  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

methods  in  lighting,  he  had  made  the  startling  dis- 
covery of  the  formula  of  the  fire  fly's  secret,  and 
revolutionised  the  entire  system  of  city  lighting. 
He  had  been  careless  of  wealth.  Walter  drops  a 
hint  of  thousands  given  to  pay  off  old  family  indebt- 
edness, or  charities  aided,  of  new  enterprises  fostered 
until  Bauer  blushingly  begs  him  to  stop. 

"  Really,  Mr.  Douglas,  I  am  no  millionaire  as 
Walter  would  make  out.  Only  I  have  been  per- 
mitted to  help  some  this  great  tuberculosis  move- 
ment that  has  been  a  great  joy  to  me." 

Helen  catches  the  vision  of  consecrated  wealth 
and  looks  at  Bauer  again.  Then  later  when  they 
are  seated  in  front  of  the  old  hearth  and  the  lights 
have  been  turned  on  while  a  heavy  snow  falls  out- 
side, Bauer  in  his  turn  receives  a  surprise  from  her. 

He  has  referred  to  the  old  days  and  recurred  to 
the  many  kindnesses  shown  to  him  by  Esther  and 
Helen  and  the  mission  workers  at  Tolchaco.  He  is 
delighted  to  hear  of  the  marriage  of  Clifford  and 
Miss  Gray,  but  in  all  the  reminiscent  talk  he  is  evi- 
dently preoccupied  and  looks  often  at  Helen  as  a 
hungry  and  thirsty  man  would  eye  the  full  table 
from  which  he  may  be  debarred. 

The  clock  strikes  a  late  hour.  He  makes  a  feeble 
excuse  to  go  and  mutters  something  about  not  hav- 
ing observed  the  time. 

"Die  Uhr  schlagt  keinem  Glucklichen?  "  Helen 
smilingly  observes. 

Bauer  starts  in  surprise  and  leans  over  towards 
her. 


THE    HIGH    CALLING  351 

"You  speak  German?"  he  asks  with  a  strange 
look  on  his  face. 

*'  I  have  had  plenty  of  time  to  learn  it  since  you 
left  us." 

He  looks  up  and  sees  that  the  other  members  of 
the  family  have  in  some  way  become  much  interested 
in  Walter's  new  plans  of  electrical  dock  openers 
which  are  spread  out  on  the  dining  room  table. 

"  You  mean  since  I  left  you  sitting  on  that  log  at 
Tolchaco?" 

"  Maybe  that  is  what  I  mean,"  Helen  says,  and 
she  is  mere  agitated  than  she  has  for  years  thought 
she  could  be. 

"  Then  you  know  what  *  Loben  ist  nicht  Lieben ' 
means  now?  " 

"  Yes,  I  know  that  and " 

"  The  world  has  praised  me  much  since  that  time, 
but  it  is  an  empty  thing.  I  am  a  lonesome  man, 
sitting  alone  with  honour.  '  Loben  ist  nicht  lieben?  ' 
Is  it  not  so?  " 

The  tears  are  in  Helen's  eyes.  This  man  will  win 
her  yet.  Bauer  mutters  again. 

"  Was  vonHerzen  kommt,  geht  zu  Herzen,"  and 
then  forgetting  that  Helen  understands  he  says  as  if 
talking  to  himself,  " '  What  comes  from  the  heart 
goes  to  the  heart.'  May  I  come  to-morrow  or  soon 
and — tell  you  what  is  in  my  heart  ?  " 

Helen  smiles  as  she  notes  the  old  sign  of  distrust 
in  himself  that  used  to  mark  the  old  young  Bauer 
she  used  to  know.  But  she  says  with  a  new  note  of 
life  in  her  own  voice :  "  Yes,  come  to-morrow." 


352  THE    HIGH    CALLING 

"  There  will  be  much  for  my  heart  to  tell  thine," 
he  says  dropping  inevitably  into  the  endearing  pro- 
noun. 

And  as  -he  rises  and  goes  away  Helen  follows  his 
stalwart  figure  out  of  the  doorway  and  then  goes 
and  sits  down  by  the  fire  again. 

Her  mother  finds  her  there. 

"  Mr.  Bauer,  Felix,  is  coming  here  to-morrow, 
mother.  I  know  what  he  is  coming  to  say." 

Esther  pauses.  Helen  answers  her  unspoken 
question. 

"  I  am  going  to  find  my  happiness,  mother.  It  is 
the  highest  voice  I  have  heard.  I  am  not  afraid  to 
answer  it." 

So  with  all  who  have  fought  and  prayed  and 
yearned  for  the  overcoming  life  in  this  story,  may 
they  all  say,  "  I  am  not  afraid  to  answer  the  call 
when  it  sounds  to  me,  the  sound  of  '  The  High 
Calling.' " 

THE  END 


A     000110202     9 


